Data: Quarter of US homes find piracy acceptable
September 22, 2022
By Colin Mann
Ahead of a conference panel session on ‘Digital Piracy and Distribution’, research firm Parks Associates has released data on video habits which show that almost one-quarter of US Internet households agree that pirating content is acceptable, up from 14 per cent in 2019.
“Almost half of pirates believe stealing content is acceptable because there are no consequences to the behaviour,” said Jennifer Kent, VP, Research, Parks Associates. “The session provides insights on piracy behaviour and triggers and strategies to balance piracy prevention with subscriber retention and churn motivators. We are excited to bring the industry together to share insights on this important topic.”
“We’ve found that consumers pirate NOT because they want to but because they’re often forced to by an increasingly complex and fragmented streaming landscape that was built for companies, not users,” said Tim Cutting, GM, Reelgood.
“Some consumers do not even realise that they are viewing pirated content,” said Serhad Doken, CTO, Adeia. “There is room for improvement from the industry in several perspectives: education, content security, and product design.”
“We’re talking to the largest streamers and studios in the world, and they are all expressing a similar feeling – piracy is a today problem to solve,” said Matthew Fite, CTO, Verimatrix. “I think that as an industry we have the opportunity and the responsibility right now to work together to find creative solutions to shut down piracy.”
“With an increasingly fragmented content landscape as content owners range direct-to-consumer services, piracy is soaring. Ultimately, consumers are looking for content, so we all need to focus on the best, aggregated approaches to allow this to happen,” said Sebastian Kramer, SVP Product Management, NAGRA.
“EZDRM is pleased to participate in the Future of Video discussions as we believe strongly in the commercial foundations of the streaming media business,” said Olga Kornienko, Co-founder and COO, EZDRM. “Internet distribution does not eliminate the fundamental need to monetise the production and distribution of great content – something we help to enable every day.”
“We’re extremely pleased to be joining this illustrious panel and to highlight how broadcasters, platform operators, and rights holders can address the threats posed to them by video piracy,” said Chris White, Operations Director, Friend MTS.