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Two thirds of Europeans routinely access free movie sources online

By | Published on Monday 17 February 2014

European Commission

A new study by the European Commission reckons that 70% of Europeans are regularly downloading and streaming film content for free on the net.

And while the survey of 4608 consumers did not specifically ask about the accessing of movies from unlicensed sources – so that films legitimately available via YouTube or TV catch up services like iPlayer would be counted in these figures – given the study focused exclusively on movie content, much of which isn’t routinely available free-to-access online, it seems fair to assume much of this downloading and streaming is from non-legit sources.

The survey focused on ten EU countries, including the UK, and questioned viewers aged 4-50 (yes four years old, presumably their viewing habits were described by parents) on how they consumed movies, including at cinemas, on DVD, on TV and online. Overall 97% of those surveyed said they watched films at least occasionally, and 68% said they accessed free movie content online, 34% on a weekly basis.

Assuming a sizable portion of the free online viewing is from illegal sources, perhaps most interesting are the reasons given by respondents for accessing such content, with said reasons similar to those in surveys that ask the same question of people who access music from unlicensed online sources, especially the ones relating to cost.

The report says: “The high cost of cinema or legal platforms is a key motivation for free downloading and streaming. 50% of respondents admit streaming and downloading films online for free because ‘cinema tickets, video-on-demand and DVD are expensive and they can’t afford them for all the films they want to see’ and 37% think ‘some films are interesting but not worth paying for the cinema experience'”.

It goes on: “Other reasons for streaming and downloading films for free include ease of access (31% of downloaders consider that ‘many films are available online and don’t see the point in paying’), lack of availability (30% say that ‘many films they want to see are not available in their country’ and 27% that ‘many films they want to see are too slow to come to their country’) and missed opportunities (28% say that ‘they didn’t go when the film was on the cinema and they can’t wait for it to be available on DVD or on TV’ and 23% say they ‘don’t have time to go to the cinema’)”.

The full report is online here.



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