A new study by PriceWaterhouseCoopers on consumer attitudes towards piracy reveils recent insights into the minds of pirates. Consumers are in it because it’s about getting free stuff, and everybody else is doing it too. 

The researchers asked some 202 people, that are illegally downloading copyright protected material on a regular basis, about their behavior and the reasons for it. At the top of the list was the fact that pirated content is free.

Of course there have been many studies on piracy and consumer behaviour towards it before, but for the entertainment industry it remains important to keep track of recent study results like these. They may be able to spot trends and openings for adapting their business to behavioral changes of their customers. 

PWC established that people have some willingness to pay for entertainment, but not much — and the vast majority said that they’re going to continue to hunt for free content. Interestingly, people do not seem to mind commercials. For the creative sector, this would mean that offering free, or very low priced content is the key. The necessary revenues can be generated from advertising and other commercial activity. 

For 69 percent of the respondents, the content being free is a deciding factor to use filesharing platforms; 68 percent said DVDs are too expensive, and 58 percent believe that authorised digital downloads are also too pricey. The study also reveiled an astonishing lack of comprehension of the criminal nature of downloading: 54 percent said they pirate because “everyone was doing it.” What would these people do if, somehow, they get the impression that ‘everybody’ robbed a bank? Of course, not everyone is actually pirating content, but this kind of perception may well become a self-fulfilling prophecy. 

PwC asked what could get people to abandon piracy: 81 percent said that they’re likely going to continue to get their video fix for free. Willingness to pay for movies is low, unless it is offered right after the theater release, but even then, 45 percent said they’d pay less than a dollar to stream a movie. This last result is interesting. As much as that may be true, that’s not exactly what the sector has in mind with its new premium VOD plans and recent initiatives in The Netherlands show that they are working.

According to PwC, the only thing that seems to be working to get people back to legitimate offerings is pricing them around zero; 58 percent responded that they’d frequent free, ad-supported websites. This study may seem discouraging for Hollywood at first glance, but the PwC survey comes as a validation to Hulu’s approach, which has been questioned lately. The Hulu model might actually work to curb piracy: Offering ad-supported, low priced content deters pirates, and adding a subscription-based offering to the fold may actually have helped Hulu to tap into that one-third willing to open their wallets.

Source: The New York Times