Younger viewers are more willing to view pirated content, while the general willingness to view pirated content decreases with age.
There’s good news in the study conducted by YouGov on behalf of the security company Irdeto, which shows that the majority of American and UK consumers are unlikely to watch illegally obtained shows.
This is different in Asia and Australia. A much smaller proportion of respondents noted that they were unlikely or extremely unlikely to watch pirated content (40% Australia, 31% Singapore, 40% India and only 9% in Indonesia), leaving a large majority of consumers in Asia Pacific who are open to consuming entertainment through illegal means.
Conversely, 62% of 18-24 year olds in the UK and 54% of 18-34 year olds in the United States admitted to watching pirated content, a number much higher than older respondents.
The research was commissioned by Irdeto and conducted among a representative sample of over 4,700 adults to understand and address consumer behavior around media content consumption in today’s multi-screen world. It uncovered trends in piracy, viewing habits, and service delivery platforms across the U.S., U.K., Australia, Singapore, India, and Indonesia.
In many cases viewers would prefer to obtain the content by legal means were it available – though this may mean available free-to-air rather than through pay channels.
“One of the most interesting findings from our survey was that availability, poor quality, and security issues are deterrents for downloading illegal content,” said Bengt Jonsson, Vice President APAC, Irdeto. “This is a clear message to operators to provide high quality content at the right price. This could be a differentiator to remain competitive in a diverse region like Asia Pac.”
In the UK only 3% said they watched pirated content every ay, 5% over the course of a week.
