Pirates buy more content than those who play by the rules claims Choice study
Pirates have emerged as the surprise supporters of the content industry and are more likely to pay for movies and TV programs through legitimate means than those who never illegally download material, consumer watchdog Choice has claimed.
A survey found that 29 per cent of people who pirate at least monthly also pay for content through iTunes or Apple TV subscription, compared to 16 per cent of the general population and 12 per cent of people who never pirate.
The study also claimed that 56 per cent who regularly access illegal content go to the cinema at least monthly, compared to 36 per cent of those who stick to the rules.
Choice campaign manager Erin Turner said the answer to piracy was not to block websites, as suggested by politicians, but for media companies to make content available more quickly and at reasonable prices.
“This data shows that most Australians who pirate are even more willing to spend money on content than those who don’t pirate,” she said. “Yes there is a small group who will always pirate but most are motivated by issues of affordability and access. Their total consumption patterns on content show they are paying for a lot more than they pirate and are more likely to pay for content than people who don’t pirate at all.”
Game of Thrones is one of the most pirated shows in the world
Australia is believed to be one of the biggest countries for piracy per capita in the world, with half of those who illegally download content citing affordability as their motivator, with 41 per cent saying they just did not want to wait for content to arrive in Australia before watching.
“We need to address the competition issues and give people the content they want in the way they want it. It is a warning to media companies. Give people the content they want and they’ll pay,” Turner said.
If they don’t, current piracy behaviour will continue, she added.
The research also found that 64 per cent of those who pirate would use their technology skills to access sites that are blocked, if government proposals to block file sharing sites are adopted.
“It’s not surprising as they have a degree of tech literacy so the kind of solutions to piracy that we know the government is considering are less likely to effect people who are illegally downloading content,” Turner said.
Choice director of campaigns and communications, Matt Levey, said there remains “ridiculous” delays to shows arriving in Australia, citing the example of superhero TV hit The Flash which aired in the US on October 7 but was only shown in Australia on December 3, two months later.
“The internet has made it easier than ever to access content quickly, providers need to catch up,” he said.
“There is also a strong perception among pirates that content in Australia is more expensive than overseas. Given pirates are already willing to pay for content from Australian providers, giving them an easier way to access cheaper, legitimate content from overseas would help reduce the rates of piracy.
“As the research shows, consumers will pay for content on Quickflix, iTunes and Netflix but we want the right content at the right time.”
It is believed the emergence of more streaming platforms in Australia, including Stan and Presto, will help stem the rate of piracy.
Steve Jones
Well, well, well. Let it be said “Don’t bite the hand that pirates from you”
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A link to the study would be helpful. Otherwise it’s impossible to assess the conclusions. For example, perhaps people who pirate fall into an age, location, and socioeconomic group that is more inclined to visit the cinema anyway. Maybe, maybe not.
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I’m not surprised that those who download illegally are more likely to use iTunes or Quickflix. The customer base for these services is usually young people who are familiar with sourcing content online.
What I’d be really interested to see is what piracy looks like amongst those who still regularly rent/buy DVDs or subscribe to Fetch TV or Foxtel.
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@Phil – its a Choice study so I’m assuming you need to pay for it hence no link.
@mmmm… – based on the behaviour of my 35+ year old peers I would surmise that those who participate in “grey downloading” (as I like to call it – piracy is so crass) are also more likely to be a Foxtel subscriber. Logic being they’re forking out $100+ per month for pay TV so they think they’re entitled to some “free content”.
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Of course pirates buy more.
People who are the heaviest buyers of film will also be the heaviest shoppers, pirates and social media followers.
This is simple Ehrenberg marketing.
The heaviest buyers of any brand are also the most involved.
It’s called the NBD Dirichlet.
So – next time you get excited because lots of people follow your brand on social media – remember – it’s simply those who are the heaviest buyers. They won’t generally buy any more.
Focus on reach.
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It is totally ridiculous Australia had to wait a whole 7 weeks to watch an American teen drama.
I’m calling Tony.
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As a game developer this has been well known for over a decade, studies commissioned by the MPAA/RIAA that confirm piracy benefits more than harms has even been suppressed. They are well aware it isn’t harmful but refuse to accept it for some bizarre reason.
I stopped worrying about piracy of my games a long time ago after doing my research, most industry vets are the same except for those in marketing and publishing (anecdotally of course).
My real concern is that this is known and simply a ruse to control the internet. Anarchy isn’t popular for representative democracy as it is leading to an awakening of the public that we need a new system of government. The scary part is the clause that if blocking websites won’t work more harsh measures will take place, watch out for the scapegoat of “think of the children” being used soon as well.
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I am not surprised.
Digital pirates are people who want what they want, when they want it.
They have no respect for the 18th century mindset that persists in seeing Australia as a market at the far end of the world where bulky cargo must be sent over hazardous seas. And therefore extra fees and charges are justified.
At some point content owners and licence holders will finally understand it is best to remove all the artificial barriers and levies and simply sell their material at a fair price to whoever wants, it when they want it where-ever they reside globally.
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I’m so sick of this discussion, It’s really simple to solve this problem first make the content cheaper and more will buy it and offer it legally sooner, waiting days, or weeks is enough of a delay to cause illegal downloads, offer it the same or next day the its released internationally cheaper and the issue almost disappears.
I used to download TV shows and movies and now I use Netflix and Hulu Plus and I don’t download anything except the odd indie TV show that not on either service or released in Australia.
Foxtel is very expensive even I had it and even with the crappy $25 package that excludes any good content and the Aussie services are pretty bad and have a bad business model charging per session/episode and this makes it expensive for a family, it needs to be a flat fee, hence Netflix is so popular. I’d be happy to pay $25 a month for local service with all of the content included.
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Hi Phil
A link has been added to the story that will take you through to the survey findings
Cheers
Steve – chief reporter
Mumbrella
Dear Choice.
I really want to read your report about how nasty copyright owners aren’t letting Aussies download content for whatever price they want and whenever they want, but I can’t find it on your website! You’ve got it behind a paywall! You’ve got your reports locked away like naughty Foxtel locked away Game of Thrones. I want to read it but I don’t want to give your nonsense organisation any money! GIVE ME WHAT I WANT WHEN I WANT!
I’ll just get it off the Pirate Bay – that’s cool with you guys, right?
Much love
Gimme gimme
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The report only shows usage of all paid services for total market.
iTunes and cinema have been singled out as being more popular amongst pirates in the notes but it would be great to know what overall use of paid services looks like.
It would also be interesting to know how much they actually spend on paid content in comparison to those who don’t use torrents.
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Piracy increases quality of life. People who pirate and DON’T buy media are people who cannot afford it. BUT… to have access to an internet connection with enough data allowance to pirate this media means the pirates, generally, have enough money to buy their favourite media. I pirate a lot. And I mean a lot! But I have hundreds of legitimate DVDs, CD’s, computer games etc. Most of these ‘legal’ media were obtained after I pirated it. For Example, Avatar. I Pirated it. I loved it! I went to the cinema afterwards 3 times to see it in 2D and 3D. I bought the DVD. Then I bought the Blue-ray version. Hell, I bought my Blue-ray player because of it!
Piracy increases quality of life because now people don’t have to spend their hard-earned money whenever a studio churns out a crap movie or music album. People can pirate, see if they like it, then they will tell all their friends if its crap or not.
Media owners are just annoyed that they can’t make money off crap anymore.
If it weren’t for the pirates, we’d still be paying $20 a ticket to go to the cinema and we wouldn’t have the amount of musical entertainers coming to places like Australia. Remember 10-15 years ago? When we were lucky to have the smallest stars come to Australia? Now, we have huge stars come here because they need to work for their money instead of sitting on their asses churning out crap.
The computer game industry has adjusted perfectly. There are a lot of ‘Free To Play’ games out there. They instead sell in-game items and make a fortune. Look at Valve’s games Team Fortress 2 and Dota 2. A perfect example of pirate-proof media.
The world is changing and so must the media.
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In the early days of the Net I was a subscriber to AudioGalaxy and Kazzaa and downloaded hundreds of songs for free illegally. After iTunes started I downloaded nearly all of them again because the quality on the pirated copies was usually terrible with what I called “a shelly shelly sound”.
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I remember when Choice was an objective source of information; never taking sides and not even allowing company names to be used in media reports. Sad that it’s devolved into a leftie anti-government rant-fest.
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So good watching this mass-dinosaur extinction.
You wingers didn’t create anything, you just gouged profits from other people’s creativity.
Toddle off now.
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…so it’s ok to rob a bank, as long as I give some of the proceeds to charity? Has anyone looked up the word ‘piracy’ lately?
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Screw you Murdoch and the worlllddddd Mwhahahahahahaha
I am now an international man of mystery, able to commit crimes with far reaching implications all from the comfort of my lounge room.
The WHOLE digital content ownership concept is out of date, you will have to satisfy your greed for the mega millions of $$ by selling me cheap sweat shop produced t shirts, quilt covers and action toys.
Movies and TV stopped being created for entertainment many many years ago, They are now nothing more than extended adverts and their simple task now is to sell more merchandise.
“How to buy Mega man Show”
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Ahoy mi hearties!
Ill pirate ye olde Game Of Thrones and invest my limited gold in the occasional iTunes single (because I cant be stuffed sailing to foreign lounges and filling ye olde hard drive).
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I can stream a live game of NFL in AUS, from the US.
If I can and am used to doing that am I going to try and watch a TV series at the same time (in AUS) than my friends and families in the US?
The power is no longer with the 3rd party. The power is firmly in the hands of the producers and the end users.
Fck the 3rd parties.
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I can fully understand the results of this survey.
I knew a man some years back who, when his wife lost her credit card in the hustle and bustle of a busy shopping crowd, deliberately failed to report it to the bank, when he discovered that whoever had found the card was spending less than his wife did.
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LOL, this sounds silly. Surely the young pirate more, and this is the same demographic who would go to the movies and buy music anyway. If someone pirates 20 items, and buys 3, does this make them better than those who pirate nothing and buys 2?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for try before you buy – it does help me set a price point for games at least, (i.e. is it worth the money and how much is it worth).
I would suggest fast and convenient purchase options, along with the fact everyone has a shop in their pocket is more to do with it than anything.
Pirating isn’t that straight forward for many people. It does require some skills to source the files and in some case to know how to use them.
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The power is not necessarily with “the producers and the end users”. The power shift towards the end user is indeed because of all the reasons stated above. I don’t disagree with most of it.
Sure, we all agree that content ownership models being out of date. And surprise, surprise, we all witness every day our collective insatiable appetite for newness in a myriad of forms….gimme now. But gimme a break. It all does come down to time and money. I get it. Some people don’t want to wait. And some people don’t want to pay. Some people don’t like to do either. So it is the end users who find their way around this. Good on ’em. They’re so far down the food chain, or so alienated from the real production process (after all….they’re just end users) so why should they care if the production (whatever form it comes in) makes any profit at all. But lo and behold, watch them holler when the production values fall because in such climates lavish productions just cannot be bankrolled. Watch as potential end users (yes, customers in the old vernacular) look for new ways to get better, slicker, shinier somewhere else for free. Watch in wonder as they haemorrhage like lemmings at every paywall.
All this talk of free market anarchy. What exists now is not anarchy. It is just a prevalence of the idea that as consumers we deserve anything we want, when we want it and that anyone standing in our way is some kind of money grabbing grub, aka the producer.
The original owner of the idea or the poor shmuck who has slaved away to try and make a living from what ever craft the end user feels it is their right to leach seems to have gone out the window. The power exists now squarely at the end user spectrum and the pain exists (cash rich Hollywood monoliths aside) with the producer. I create. I want to create for a living. What’s wrong with the idea of getting paid for the work that you do? Just because you don’t want to pay for it or that you know a way around having to pay, doesn’t mean you deserve it.
I am not a cash buoyant capitalist pig. I am a single operator producing content alone, or a part of a collective. Why can it be that Choice are now regarded in the same breath as akin the Foxtel who “locked away game of Thrones”. I subscribe to Choice. I paid for their advice on my fridge, my kid’s stroller and my noise cancelling headphones. I reckon their advice is okay. Saves me doing the legwork. Oh yeah, here we go again. damn. I wish I didn’t have to pay them though.
I don’t know about you guys but I don’t walk into a brick and mortar shop, try on a shirt and walk out without paying for it just because I like it. I don’t go online and wiggle my way out of paying for stuff on Gumtree because I don’t think the seller I’m dealing with deserves my money. Why, oh friggin’ why, is digital content any different? If you can’t afford it. If you are aren’t prepared to pay for it. If you that you deserve it just because you are you, then…….. words fail me. All I can think to say is, for fuck’s sake, get a grip.
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