About 39% of respondents to a recent survey said that they don’t care about the financial damage that video piracy inflicts on studios and other segments of the media industry.
And a sizable portion – about 32% -- of consumers admitted that they watch pirated content, according to a survey of 1,190 U.S. adults by YouGov that was commissioned by security specialist Irdeto.
Per the study, just 19% said the financial damage caused by piracy would stop them from watching purloined content altogether.
The study also found that 69% believe that streaming or downloading pirate content is illegal, meaning that a 31% think it’s totally above board.
Those findings, of course, are good for Irdeto, which believes that they indicate that content owners, movie studios and service providers should invest in additional content protection strategies to prevent pirates from stealing shows and movies and cutting into their legitimate businesses. Irdeto also believes that these issues cut even deeper.
“The negative impact that piracy has on the content creation industry extends much further than lost revenue,” Lawrence Low, VP of business development and sales at Irdeto, said in a statement. “Piracy deters content creators from investing in new content, impacting the creative process and providing consumers with less choice. It is becoming increasingly important for operators and movie studios to educate consumers on the tactics employed by pirates and to further promote innovative offerings that allow consumers to legally acquire content.”
Among other findings, 24% of consumers who watch pirated content are most interested in watching TV series, while the same percentage were most interested in prirated movies that are currently showing in theaters.
According to TorrentFreak, a site focused on file-sharing and privacy and copyright issues, HBO’s Game of Thrones was again the most-torrented TV show. Deadpool, it said, was the most pirated movie of 2016, ahead of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
The Irdeto/YouGov study also found that consumers are likewise interested in pirating DVD and Blu-ray movies (18%), live sports (10%), and originals from OTT services such as Netflix and Hulu (9%).
