THE ASIAN television industry will not fully embrace format protection until format theft starts biting chunks out of its bottom line.

This is the view of Asian TV pioneer Robert Chua, founder and CEO of Health & Lifestyle Channel (HLC) and long-time FRAPA board member. Chua, who has spent 48 years at the epicentre of Asian TV, is not afraid to call an IP infringer a pirate. “There is not much format protection in Asia, because the big boys seldom resort to the law to stop even blatant format theft, let alone ‘adaptations’ of their shows that might infringe their IP,” he says. “There are many Asian countries that still need to be treated with care in terms of format protection, including sophisticated markets such as Hong Kong and Singapore.”

But times are changing. “Recently, several leading broadcasters in China have been lobbying Beijing to establish some sort of legal protection for their own local formats,” Chua reports. “This has to be a good sign for the region as a whole.”

MOST Eastern European territories have learned to live with the crisis; there’s still a need for cost-effective content — and nobody’s stopped producing, commissioning or watching formats.

This is the heartening message brought home from DISCOP East by Avi Armoza, CEO and founder of Israel’s Armoza Formats and long-term FRAPA member. The 18^th outing of the Central and Eastern Europe’s leading content market took place at the end of June in Budapest, attracting some 365 sellers and 800 buyers to the Hungarian capital.

 “We were a bit concerned after DISCOP 2009, which took place at the peak of the crisis,” Armoza says. “But the mood this year was much better. Eastern Europe is not a market you want to give up on — and DISCOP is an important event in terms of meeting customers from the region’s smaller territories. I believe it’s our role as distributors to support these smaller markets.”

In April 2000, industry figures from across the globe met in Cannes to debate the creation of an international industry body to combat television format piracy.  The group agreed that action was necessary and endorsed the idea of FRAPA, the Format Recognition and Protection Association.  It’s aims were succinctly stated:  “FRAPA aims to ensure that television formats are respected by the industry and protected by law as intellectual property”.

FRAPA is the international format industry association dedicated to the protection of formats.

FRAPA mediates disputes arising out of claims of format plagiarism.

FRAPA consists of more than 100 companies from within the television and broadcasting industries.  Its members include format creators, producers, distributors and broadcasters.

FRAPA is set up as an independent non-profit association.  Annual membership fees are relative to a company’s annual turnover.  A member may be ejected, if such member repeatedly fails to abide by its undertakings to the rules of the association.  The power is with the members' meeting.  The members' meeting elects the Management Board and the Steering Committee.

Please feel free to contact FRAPA to see how we can help you and your business.