Has the Streaming Era Caused More Piracy?

Movie and TV piracy have always been a thing in Hollywood. From guys selling DVDs on street corners to the choppy waters of the Pirate Bay, it's been ubiquitous.

But piracy has largely stayed a problem that's the same size, and now it's growing.

As reported by The Guardian, after a dip in 2020, digital piracy is surging once again, with website visits climbing from 130 billion to 216 billion by 2024. According to the London-based firm MUSO, this new wave is dominated by unlicensed streaming, which accounted for 96% of all TV and film piracy in 2023.

The trend is largely driven by younger demographics; in Sweden, a quarter of people surveyed in 2024 reported pirating content, a figure led by those aged 15 to 24.

The pirates have returned to their ships.

Key Piracy Stats

A 2023 study from DataPro found that...

• Pirated video material gets over 230 billion views a year.
  
• More than 80% of global online piracy can be attributed to illegal streaming services.
• Digital video piracy is costing the US economy between $29.2 and $71 billion each year.
• 126.7 billion viewings worth of US-produced TV episodes are pirated every year.
• 70,000 jobs a year are lost in the United States due to music piracy.
• Annual global revenue losses from digital piracy are between $40 and $97.1 billion in the movie industry.
• Illegal downloading of copyrighted materials takes up 24% of the global bandwidth.

Piracy and Streaming

Streaming services are getting expensive. Netflix has plans above $30, and Disney is trying to get you to pay high bundling prices or for ads. In fact, all services seem to have raised their prices dramatically in order to get people to pay to watch advertisements.

This increase is across many platforms. And you can find yourself paying hundreds of dollars a month in order to get all those programs you watch.

The temptation to just find a site where you can watch for free is real.

Price hikes by companies intent on finding more profit are being met with people who are no longer interested in paying. And while these streamers say they need the hikes to survive, people are finding a way to get into all of this for free, so streamers are suffering.

Combine that with the inability to share Netflix passwords and a crackdown on regions, and you have a pretty bold consumer base willing to do whatever it takes not to pay anything.

Summing It All Up

In order to survive, streamers need to find a price point that keeps consumers paying, instead of going around them. That's harder than it sounds, and it may mean bundling or another form of easing the burden on consumers.

These are all open-ended questions because, as piracy gets easier and easier, more people are just going to do that without consequences than sign over their hard-earned money to companies that may raise prices again the following month.

Let me know what you think in the comments.