Pirates of the Disney+
Are too many streaming platforms and their exclusive content prompting the rebirth of digital piracy?
“Streaming Video-on-Demand services will be the end of digital piracy.” We all remember that bold claim. With the rise of Netflix came the belief that when provided with an easy, inexpensive and most importantly legal way to access shows and films, many consumers would forgo their swashbuckling. While there is considerable evidence to suggest that streaming reduced illegal downloading, the continued saturation of the streaming platform market begs the question: is piracy coming back?
Digital piracy has a long and storied history. It may not be as thrilling as the fabled pirates of the sea, but these days it is much more prevalent. Media piracy has existed since books first began to be published. Pirated VHS tapes and DVDs dominated poorer, developing nations for years, but Hollywood carried on. The fact that pirated alternatives were too costly and time-consuming and rarely high quality meant this media piracy was little more than a mild irritant to major studios. But then something changed.
The catalyst that transformed media piracy from a small annoyance to a major competitor was the Internet itself. Suddenly, perfect copies of digital files could be shared in a matter of seconds. Consumers could access the files with a few clicks for free without sacrificing quality. The industry had a problem.
The rise of Napster in 1999 marked a 57% drop in music revenue across the following decade. DVD revenue dropped by 43% with BitTorrent’s creation. Sure, these avenues of accessing media were illegal, but with limited repercussions, why would consumers spend money on goods they could simply download them?
Governments took measures to combat it of course, but it has become a game of whack-a-mole: as soon as one site is taken down, another springs up in its place.
For media producers it was frustrating. So frustrating, in fact, that when the idea of streaming services came along it sounded reasonable. For a small monthly fee, subscribers would be able to access a wide variety of digital content and thus no longer download it illegally. Studios would profit off of licensing fees and BitTorrent would become a thing of the past… Supposedly.
These days it seems like everyone has a streaming platform. Since Netflix paved the way, shifting from a home delivery Blockbuster-type rental service to an online provider, many other platforms have followed suit. Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Stan and now even Disney are entering the market this November.
Generally, increased competition is good for consumers. Competition promotes innovation, competitive prices and improved quality of services. And while it is true that competition in the streaming platform industry does encourage improvement, the matter of exclusive content makes things more complex.
Exclusive content like Netflix’s House of Cards, Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale or HBO’s Game of Thrones (coincidentally one of most pirated shows of all time), create a major stumbling block for those proclaiming that streaming was to be the expiration of the digital piracy craze.
Producers are either using strictly limited licenses to ensure that a service does not have streaming rights to their content for long, or the content is exclusively licensed to one service.
Suddenly, consumers are finding that in order to access all of the shows they want to see they must subscribe to an ever-growing list of services. At $12 per month, it only takes a few different services for the price point difference between cable television and streaming to dissolve. BitTorrent’s growing usage after years of steady decline suggests there are only so many services consumers are willing to pay for.
This issue was really put into perspective to me when Disney announced the planned launch of its streaming service Disney+. The Internet erupted when many of us realised the content that had formed a significant portion of our childhood may be taken back by the media powerhouse to stream only on their platform. Not only our beloved childhood classics, but Marvel, Lucasfilm and Pixar, all mega powers in popular culture, would stream exclusively on Disney+ in the United States.
And then my sister said, “I can’t believe I’m going to have to illegally download Lion King.”
Suddenly, we find ourselves back in the same position of having to decide between paying hefty subscription fees to a variety of services to gain access to stream our selected media or turn to digital piracy. Will people be willing? Or will history repeat itself as consumers turn to cheaper, easier and of course illegal avenues to consume their media?
I think we all know the answer to that. Now, can anyone reteach me how to use BitTorrent?
