Subscription fatigue drives piracy – 01/21/2024 – Ronaldo Lemos

Something is not going well in the streaming market. In 2023, all records were broken in terms of access to pirated video content platforms, including series, films, anime, etc. The total number of visits reached 141 billion during the year, with peaks of 386 million daily visits.

This represents a 12% growth compared to the previous record of pirated accesses, recorded in 2019 before the pandemic began. The data was measured by the consultancy Kearney in partnership with the English anti-piracy organization MUSO.

The three countries that lead pirated video consumption are the United States, India and Russia. Together, they represent 30% of all accesses to illegal platforms. Brazil, in turn, is on the other side of the equation. The country was in the top 10 of countries with the lowest measured access to pirated platforms, close to Japan, a country that is notorious for its low historical rates of piracy.

The Brazilian position reflects the global distribution of video piracy. The most pirated continent on the planet today is Europe, followed closely by Asia (especially India). In last place comes South America, with the lowest rates of access to illegal video platforms.

Obviously, this does not mean that there is no streaming piracy in Brazil. It exists, but it is considerably lower compared to levels found in other countries, including the USA and England itself.

In any case, the aggregate growth of piracy brings reflections. We are experiencing the phenomenon called “subscription fatigue”. The proliferation of streaming services, each with its own subscription plan, has generated frustration among consumers. Many are unable to pay for all services or intend to reduce the current number of subscriptions, as research by Civic Science showed.

It is worth noting that from 2000 to 2010 the world saw an exacerbated growth in piracy. At the time, the reason was the absence of alternatives offering competitive prices and a comprehensive catalog for digital access. The industry insisted on selling CDs and DVDs, delaying the emergence of digital platforms with legal content and affordable prices.

In music, the situation changed with the emergence of services such as Spotify and others, which, through a monthly subscription, allow access to practically all musical content ever created. In video, however, there was no emergence of a universal content aggregator with an affordable price and a broad catalog. On the contrary, those who chose to switch from cable TV subscriptions to streaming for price reasons today run the risk of having to pay more than they did before to access two or three services simultaneously. And you are probably dissatisfied.

This misalignment of supply with consumption leaves room for piracy. In most cases it is not caused because consumers are dishonest, as we showed in the study “Media Piracy in Emerging Countries”. The issue is economic. The services offered fail in terms of price or catalogue. Whether by offering products that are incompatible with consumers’ income or catalogs that do not represent what they want to consume. This is where the pirate appears.

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