Video piracy is booming — thanks to the explosion of streaming services
More isn’t always better
Losing aggregation
The emergence of video streaming services such as Netflixwas heraldedas an effective way to curb illegal downloads. But how Netflix did this at first was in aggregating content. It provided a convenient, cost-effective, and legal way to access a large catalog of TV shows and movies; and consumersembracedit.
But as the streaming market has developed, the loss of content aggregation appears to be leading back to piracy.
As an example, according to analytics company Sandvine, the file-sharing tool BitTorrent accounted for 31% of all uploads in 2018; in 2019 it was45%. As Sandvine explained:
This trend has been amplified by COVID-19 lockdowns, with traffic to illegal TV and movie sites reportedlysurging in 2020. A survey for the Australian Government found34% of respondentsconsumed some form of illegal content in 2020.
Lessons from music
Why should this be happening more for TV shows and movies and not for music?
There’s an important difference. Services such as Spotify, Apple Music, and Tidal offer you just about all the music there is. You don’t need to sign up to one to listen to The Beatles and another to hear Taylor Swift. You need only sign up for one.
Researchhas shown that a consumer’s willingness to pay is often anchored around the initial information they are exposed to. Viewers accustomed to paying for one streaming service might be reluctant to pay for as many as six.
In a survey of about 3,000 US TV watchers in February,56% said they felt overwhelmedby the number of streaming services on offer.
Deloitte’sAustralian Media Consumer Survey 2019found that almost half of streaming video-on-demand subscribers said it was hard to know what content is available on what service. Three-quarters said they wanted the content in one place, rather than having to hunt through multiple services.
Seeking a one-stop-shop
Although it is not yet clear how many video streaming services the Australian market can support, high-profile failures bothat homeandoverseasshould serve as a warning.
But in the absence of a legal one-stop-shop for TV and movies, people will take matters into their own hands.
Illegal streaming platforms that aggregate content from multiple video streaming services into a single interface are becoming more widespread. Such services typically use an open-source media player, coupled with cheapjailbroken hardwareand a VPN to access a plethora of illegal entertainment.
Until the industry offers a legal alternative to such platforms, the popularity of such services is only likely to grow.
Article byPaul Crosby, Lecturer, Department of Economics,Macquarie UniversityandJordi McKenzie, Associate Professor, Department of Economics,Macquarie University
This article is republished fromThe Conversationunder a Creative Commons license. Read theoriginal article.
Story byThe Conversation
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