<
https://www.techdirt.com/2024/01/10/piracy-is-surging-again-because-streaming-execs-ignored-the-lessons-of-the-past/>
"Back in 2019 we noted how the streaming sector risked driving consumers back
to piracy if they didn’t heed the lessons of the past. We explored how the rush
to raise rates, nickel-and-dime users, implement arbitrary restrictions, and
force users toward hunting and pecking their way through a confusing platter of
exclusives and availability windows risked driving befuddled users back to
piracy.
And lo and behold, that’s exactly what’s happening.
After several decades of kicking and screaming, studio and music execs
somewhere around 2010 finally realized they needed to offer users affordable
access to easy-to-use online content resources. They finally realized they
needed to compete with piracy and focus on consumer satisfaction whether they
liked the concept or not. And unsurprisingly, once they learned that lesson
piracy began to dramatically decrease.
That was until 2021, when piracy rates began to climb slowly upward again in
the U.S. and EU. As the
Daily Beast notes, users have grown increasingly
frustrated at having to hunt and peck through a universe of different, often
terrible streaming services just to find a single film or television program.
As every last broadcaster, cable company, broadband provider, and tech company
got into streaming they began to lock down “must watch” content behind an
ever-shifting number of exclusivity silos, across an ocean of sometimes
substandard “me too” services. Initially competition worked, but as the market
saturated and the most powerful companies started to silo content, those
benefits have been muted.
Now users have to hunt and peck between Disney+, Netflix, Starz, Max, Apple+,
Acorn, Paramount+, Hulu, Peacock, Amazon Prime, and countless other services in
the hopes that a service
has the rights to a particular film or program. When
you already pay for five different services, you’re not keen to sign up to
fucking Starz just to watch a single 90s film. And availability is constantly
shifting, confusing things further.
We warned that was going to be a problem back in 2019, and it’s happening
exactly as predicted, creating widespread consumer confusion and a growing
desire for simplicity:
“The streaming industry has to converge towards a system where consumers can
watch pretty much everything they like for an affordable price,”
TorrentFreak editor Ernesto Van der Sar said. “That sounds straightforward,
but in an industry that’s built around licensing silos with billions in
revenue at stake, that’s easier said than done.”
The
Daily Beast article focuses heavily on the annoyance of international
licensing restrictions, and fails to meaningfully address the numerous other
reasons piracy is on the rise again."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
