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Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/1318513
service’s leading competitor, freeloaders cost the company an estimated $192M in monthly revenues. According to anti-piracy experts at Nagra, illegal piracy costs the US industry more than $1B a year. Their joint report with Digital Citizens Alliance noted: - An estimated 9 million fixed broadband subscribers in the U.S. use a pirate subscription IPTV service. - The $1B industry is even larger because it includes the sale of pirate streaming devices as well as ad-financed piracy. Since they don’t pay for programming, their profit margins are between 56 percent (retailers) to 85 percent (wholesalers). - The ecosystem relies on legitimate players to exist including hosting services, payment processors and social media. - Pirate sites partner with malware hackers that steal/use personal and financial data, use individuals’ systems for cryptocurrency mining, adware, ransomware, DoS botnet attacks. We understand the frustration consumers have with: - Favorite content suddenly being pulled from their subscription service to another service they don’t subscribe to. - Really great shows, content available in certain countries – especially if one of them is “just across the road” because of governmental “limitations.” But is the potential indirect cost to the consumer worth it? The U of G academics and others (including studio/service heads who want to minimize the loss to non-thinking stockholders) like to picture piracy as a marketing expense to prove the value of the content and stimulate WOM advertising to attract more paying viewers. Are you outta your mind? Piracy is an “inconvenience” for companies like Netflix, Hulu, Peacock, Disney+, Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, CBS All Access, Hotstar, Sky, Tencent, Alibaba and hundreds of streaming services around the globe. Those illegal activities mean profits have been siphoned off the content creators, studios and distributors’ bottom line. That means they don’t have added money to invest in new, different, more exciting, more enjoyable video content that is produced by tens of thousands of independent creative pros – writers, producers, directors, shooters, editors, audio engineers, boom operators, grips, FX, stunt, animators and more – who use their expertise to give people more visual stories. We realize the pirates don’t care and consumers really like the free stuff those folks have liberated for them. But money feeds the ecosystem that creates new, different, interesting content. Without it, the ecosystem dries up and you’re left with TikTok or YouTube stuff to watch. Or, you’ll end up playing Twister with us; and we warn you, we’ve really gotten good at it … again. Then you’ll have to reluctantly agree with Rob in High Fidelity when he said, “You know, it sounds boring, but it wasn’t. It wasn’t spectacular either. It was just good. But really good.”