Spotify, Netflix to thank for fall of online piracy in UK

Following Australia’s explosive uptake of SVODs like Netflix, a similar uptake of streaming services in the UK has seen online copyright infringement fall to its lowest rate in five years.

According to researchcommissioned by the Intellectual Property Office (IPO), 15% of internet users illegally accessed films, music and other copyrighted between March and May this year, down 3% from last year and the lowest it’s been since the study began five years ago.

Concurrently, legal streaming and downloading in the UK is up. IPO’s research found 44% are using exclusively legal means to access content, up 5% from research undertaken at the end of last year.

The figures lend much weight to the argument that streaming services like YouTube, Spotify and Netflix are major weapons in the battle to curb online piracy. In the last 12 months alone Spotify has seen a 3% rise in new UK users. Globally it’s the streaming market leader with 100 million monthly active listeners. Apple Music has 15 millionand Tidal has four million.

In Australia, SVOD (streaming video on demand) subscriptions are on track to more than double from the current 1.9 million to 4.1 million in June 2019 when it will exceed those of pay-TV. As previously reported in TMN, 43% of Australian households now subscribe to either pay TV or SVOD services, a 4% increase on the previous 12 months.

This chilling effect on illegal access in the digital realm has been to the detriment ofdownload sales however. IPO’s research showed more than half of internet users in the UK (52%) are using streaming services to consume content online. Meanwhile those downloading content in the UK hasfallen to 39% from 51%.

Song downloads are free-falling globally as streaming is now the biggest revenue spinner for all three major labels worldwide. In the US, single download sales fell by 24.2%in the first half of 2016(BuzzAngle Music).

As Brits steadily turn toward legitimate streaming, the territory isn’t out of the woods yet with one in 20 internet users still infringing online copyright. There’s still around 7 million internet users still accessing some illegal content in the UK with over 78 million songs accessed illegally online between March and May. Over the same period TV and movies were accessed illegally online more than 50 million times.

Global data and services firm Kantar Media carried out IPO’s research. Kantar surveyed over 5000 individuals aged 12+ in the UK.

Eddy Leviten, director general of the Alliance for Intellectual Property said in a statement: “It is encouraging to see that more UK consumers are choosing legitimate content sources, thereby supporting creators and creative businesses.

“However, illegal content is still finding an outlet in UK homes and that’s why we need better collaboration to drive down availability and access to pirate websites. Government has a crucial role to play if the UK’s creative industries are to continue to grow.”