The Canal+ group is denouncing media piracy in Senegal. "400,00 households are illegally subscribed to TV bundles", the director of Canal+ Senegal, Sébastien Punturello said, while speaking during the seminar on the reform of the national squad against piracy and counterfeit.

Mr. Punturello noted the extent of the market share taken by piracy: "if we were to convert 20% of this illegal business into our activity, this would generate 4 billion per year for the State".

The managing director of Canal+ Sénégal then expanded on the different forms of media piracy. There is the redistribution of channels through cable networks, the distribution of some channels by MMDS networks, in addition to the use of decoders whose sale is not valid in Senegal.

When it comes to decoder piracy, some operators are known to be marketing the subscriptions on offer. Sébastien Punturello warned that "Canal+ does not have any agreement with any cable television operator and this is for all intent piracy".

He noted the two reasons which make it difficult to fight against media piracy. On the legal side, there is the problem of the enforcement of verdicts, "as the decisions take too long to be applied for the crime to stop". On the technical level, there is the difficulty "stopping a pirated broadcast". Indeed, Mr Punturello explained, it is easier to stop the selling of counterfeited tangible products than to halt the marketing of intangible products. The physical disassembling of cables remains the only solution against media piracy.

Canal+ is committed to fighting against the piracy on its bundles in Africa. The French group has chosen the African continent as a priority market against the gloom which Europe is facing now. At the end of 2014, Canal+ had 1.5 million subscribers in Africa. Vincent Bolloré's group has set its target at 5 million customers in the short term.