Online Piracy Drops in Australia, Thanks to Netflix

More proof that Netflix's claim "piracy rates drop in regions where our service is available" is actually true.

For the first time in years, online piracy rates have dropped significantly in Australia. The downswing coincides with the launch of Netflix, which played a key role as most consumers who say they are pirating less cite legal alternatives as the main reason.

Well, when legal means are easier than illegal...yea.

I think it's more that everyone uses a VPN these days so you can't tell what they're doing. Factor in piracy that happens behind VPNs and piracy is just as big as ever.

I don't believe that. I do believe it's going down. It's just easier to get content legally now. It's a headache in a lot of ways to pirate over just paying for it.

Cmdrmonkey said:

I think it's more that everyone uses a VPN these days so you can't tell what they're doing. Factor in piracy that happens behind VPNs and piracy is just as big as ever.

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Trust me when I say this: MOST people have no idea what a VPN is, or how to set one up. Netflix and other local services have greatly reduced the urge to pirate content in Australia, no complex explanation around it.

What's great is that Netflix launched in Australia with roughly the same price as the US version after currency conversion, which is rare. Usually we would expect to have a 50% 'fuck you' tax put on everything: but instead we were offered the exact same service and quality for the same price as the USA. Before Netflix, the only way to acess content outside of Free TV was through Foxtel cable services, which are absurdly expensive (mostly because there was no competition). Game of Thrones only aired on Foxtel, an the DVD releases were easily 50% more than other box set/season sets. And you can see that the show was pirated more in Australia than anywhere else. This was a trend for a LOT of Foxtel exclusive content. Now that alternative sources for great shows exist: Foxtel has lowered prices and piracy is down..

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Now if we could get the pirates to stop sharing their password with everyone...

Seriously, I know plenty of people who use HBO Go, Netflix, (not Amazon Instant because no one is going to share their account password) and other cable apps who pay nothing because they have a friend with the service.

Thanks to Data Retention there will be a lot of suing and jailing! Not sure how people can be happy about that!

and they know pirating has dropped... how exactly?

Now if only HBO had Game of Thrones available for the aussies at the time we get it here in the US internet pirating would be almost non existent

Well the truth of the matter is that people are willing to pay a reasonable and fair price to watch the content they like, however in a lot of cases there is simply no legal way to watch the content, so people defer to piracy. It's not necessarily because people don't want to pay period.

I've been yelling this for the better part of the last decade that if you offer better service and choice than pirating then people will actually pay for your service. As long as it's easier to find what I need by pirating why would I use the paid service? And most of the time I can't even access what want legally, or not in any comparable quality. Or by being forced to use their player, and not my own. And of course not for outlandish prices. If I can't afford it I won't buy it, regardless of piracy.