The company has been the subject of controversy over its
decision to re-broadcast the UK's five terrestrial television
channels without the stations' permission, relying on an exemption
in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988 that was designed
for the cable industry.
The company's founder, Sugih Jamin, told weekly podcast OUT-LAW
Radio that it believes it complies with copyright and broadcasting
laws in all of the eight countries in which it operates.
He also outlined the company's plans for growth. He said that
the company has 2.2 million users and that it would have five
million users by the end of the year. He said that the UK service
will have 400,000 users within its first year of launch.
The Switzerland-based firm only re-broadcasts uninterrupted,
unchanged live feeds of television without the kind of watch-again
or archive capabilities of broadcasters' own systems.
This puts it in a very particular position when it comes to
licensing in the UK. The firm claims its re-broadcasting without
permission is permissible under laws designed to allow cable
television firms to operate.
Alexandra Illes negotiates rights in the UK for the company, and
she explained to OUT-LAW Radio what Zattoo believes the law to
be.
"We have been treated equivalent to cable providers," she said.
"The relevant factors in the laws on the European level with the
Cable and Satellite Directive as well as national laws is that the
transmission of the broadcasting signals is simultaneous,
unaltered, unabridged, to a closed user group through a cable
infrastructure, and that's what Zattoo does."
Jamin believes that the service could be of benefit to
broadcasters who are, he said, struggling to reach young people in
an age of ubiquitous broadband internet.
"They have lost touch with live TV, they are basically a lost
generation to live TV," he said. "Zattoo for the first time will
bring live TV back in contact with the Facebook generation."
"They will be getting news and entertainment through the
internet, from YouTube, from Hulu, from all the sites that provide
non-live TV content," he said. "Our audience demographic is 18 to
34 and we bring this generation back to the broadcasters."
