Aus Govt report finds drop in piracy for 2016

A report commissioned by the Australian government into the consumption of digital content has found a drop in piracy rates for 2016.

Conducted on behalf of the Department of Communications and the Arts, the survey aimed to understand consumption of music, movies, TV shows, and video games, as well as attitudes toward piracy.

Sampling 2,400 people aged 12 and up between January and March 2016, the Consumer survey on Online Copyright Infringement 2016 report notes that the way Australians consume digital content is changing.

In 2015, 43% obtained content by downloading, but that had reduced to 39% during the survey period this year. What’s more, despite music being the most popular option for downloading over movies, TV and games, it received the largest drop in piracy, from 29% last year to 26% in 2016.

The increasing adoption of streaming services like Spotify and Pandora are of course curbing music piracy. The report found 71% of consumers were streaming music and gaming content on a weekly basis. Overall, streaming across all four sectors increased from 54% to 57% year on year.

Of the four sectors, music was the second most consumed this year at 39% (down from 42% in 2015). TV shows lead the pack at 41% (up from 38% in 2015), movies was third with 33% and then video games with 15%.

The unlawful consumption of music declined to 32% from 37% in 2015 with an estimated 279 million music tracks consumed in the three-month period. Additionally,the median number of files illegally downloaded was the highest for music with 20 songs.

“This represented a drop in volumes for video games and TV programs but an increase for music and movies,” the report notes.

The most popular service overall was YouTube, followed by Foxtel and Netflix in third place.

The report notes that piracy is still a major issue in Australia, despite the decrease in consumption of illegal content. 37% of those surveyed consumed at least one unlawful file in the period, down from 43% in the same period in 2015.

“We estimate that, over the first 3 months of 2016, 23% of Australian internet users aged 12+ consumed at least one item of online content unlawfully, which equates to approximately 4.6 million people. This was a significant drop from the 26% who had consumed unlawful content in 2015,” the report reads.

Interestingly though, the report reveals that pirates are often the industry’s best customer. Pirates who infringe on some digital content, but not all, are more likely to pay for that content. In 2016, just 6% of Internet users exclusively obtained content from pirate sources, but millions of non-exclusive pirates are also consuming legitimate content too.

The finding is similar to that found in Sweden earlier this month, where those who pirate digital content are also more likely to pay.

Similar to local survey results from 2015, 43% of infringers said that better pricing would reduce their engagement with illicit content.While 35% said availability was a big factor where content isn’t being made available in Australia at the same time as elsewhere.