While the content industry has been busy gnashing its teeth and dreaming up costly and largely ineffectual ways to punish those who would dare to illegally download, the introduction of affordable streaming services in Australia may have delivered the most obvious solution to the problem.
While we still hold the dubious title of being the 4th highest region for illegal downloading worldwide, a survey conducted by consumer advocacy group, CHOICE, indicated piracy has dropped by a quarter here in Australia.
Since its much anticipated arrival in Australia in March 2015, Roy Morgan reports that Netflix has amassed over one million subscribers.
Is the huge uptake with Netflix (and admittedly less impressive sign-ups to local streaming services Stan and Presto) and the 25% drop in piracy merely a coincidence? CHOICE’s campaigns manager, Lauren Turner, says no.
"The fact is the number of people regularly pirating in Australia has dropped by a quarter since Netflix launched," says CHOICE's Campaigns Manager, Erin Turner.
"This proves once again that making content affordable and easily available is the first and most effective tactic to reduce piracy - not a draconian internet filter and notice scheme.”
But piracy still remains a huge global issue – data tracking firm Excipio monitored torrent activity in 2014-2015 and found that the volume of illegal downloading continues to grow unabated. To illustrate, the most downloaded movie of 2014, The Wolf of Wall Street, would not have made the Top 10 most downloaded films in 2015.
The introduction of high speed broadband in media markets like India and Russia are surely helping to drive the upsurge in illegal download numbers.
The Most Downloaded Shows and Movies of 2015:
1) 46,762,310 Interstellar (2014)
2) 44,794,877 Furious 7 (2015)
3) 41,594,159 Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
4) 36,881,763 Jurassic World (2015)
5) 36,443,244 Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
6) 33,953,737 American Sniper (2014)
7) 32,126,827 Fifty Shades of Grey (2015)
8) 31,574,872 The Hobbit: Battle Of The Five Armys (2014)
9) 31,001,480 Terminator: Genisys (2015)
10) 30,922,987 The Secret Service (2014)
Source: Excipio
Meanwhile, in Australia, the news of a drop in piracy is surely encouraging for the industry – if content is made available in a timely manner and at a reasonable monthly cost, then it seems Australians prefer to access their content via legal means.
As we feverishly anticipate the arrival of Game of Thrones: Season 6 in April 2016, this theory will likely be tested. For many, Foxtel Play’s $45 monthly fee may prove prohibitive but waiting until the season is over to purchase it legally via other means may be an equally unattractive option.
We’ll watch with interest to see how the future of piracy in Australia plays out.
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Angie Maddison is a contributor for Streambly. You can follow Angie on Twitter.
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