Pirate customers

Surprising – or not, if you thought a little about it – consumers who stream or download pirated media often search for that media through legitimate channels first.

But if it is unavailable / require a subscription to complete streaming service, of which there are many / its use is severely limited by artificial constraints (DRM, meaning it can only be consumed in specific ways) the consumers seek out pirated media.

The news site TorrentFreak refers to a study that shows that

The problem appears to be that these pirates often can’t find what they’re looking for through their preferred legal channels. The top reasons for people to ‘pirate’ are that content is not available (34.9%), that it’s siloed or difficult to access (34.7%), or that they can’t afford it (35.2%).

This is of course not a legitimate reason to use the pirated media but it does illustrate that media companies still haven’t solved the problem of distribution. Which is kind of odd, considering how long we have had widespread internet usage and online payments.

The idea of one-big-streaming-site-for-all-media died when Netflix failed to capture the market and if you are to follow the top 5 or 6 TV shows next year, you will need 4 subscriptions, plus the national ones.