I'm sure most of you all have heard of the trending HBO series Game of Thrones. We came across a recent article that discussed how Game of Thrones season 4 premiere will become the most pirated TV episode in the world. The episode was downloaded around 1 million times within the first 12 hours of the US airing. Now why is it that so many people have chosen to illegally download the show? Maybe it is because the price of watching shows legally is getting too expensive. Also obtaining pirated movies, shows and music via the internet is extremely convenient. As we shared in a previous post, pirating is not as bad as the entertainment industry wants you to believe, in fact it may actually be helping the industry.
The price of watching Game of Thrones legally is a major concern for most of its viewers. Price varies greatly from country to country. Although plenty of shows eventually end up on Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime, GOT is only offered through an HBO subscription or by waiting months for it to come out on DVD/Blu-ray. So lets look at the cost of an HBO subscription. In the US, HBO can cost from $15-$25 a month, but that does not include the initial cost of cable/internet which brings the total average cost to about $100 a month give or take. When you think about it, thats around $1200 a year that most people choose not to pay, with the increase in popularity of Netflix that only costs $8 a month. In other countries such as Australia, the cheapest HBO subscription is about $70 a month not including the price of internet/cable. In the UK it costs about $35 a month for HBO and in Canada it costs about $18 which is a deal compared to other countries, but other factors must be included like the cost of a TV subscription.
With how popular shows like Game of Thrones has become around the world and the ease of access of the internet, it's no wonder fans would rather illegally download the episodes rather than paying the ridiculous price of an HBO subscription on top of already having to pay for internet/cable.
In comparison to Game of Thrones by HBO, Netflix also has two very prominent shows that are coveted by fans, House of Cards and Orange is the New Black (which are currently only aired on Netflix). In the eyes of customers, having a "Netflix Original Series" makes their minds believe that Netflix is an equal to HBO as a television network, not an internet based site. Which is exactly what the company is trying to accomplish. These shows are also pirated online daily by customers who too do not want to pay the price of a subscription.
Like mentioned before one has to pay for Netflix if they are wanting to opt out of purchasing HBO or pirating entertainment illegally. Although, Netflix does not update their content regularly, meaning every time a new episode airs or a new movie is released to DVD it does not automatically appear in the Netflix browser. This is due to how much it cost Netflix as a company to purchase content rights to be allowed to stream the entertainment desired by its customers. This is the time when customers begin to look for other routes that will quench their thirst. We as a blog are not condoning pirating by any means as it is illegal, but we do understand where the temptation can seduce a person yearning for their favorite song, movie or show. Some people simply do not have the funds or means to satisfy their wants, and with this being said people in our society and communities look for other ways to ease their minds, and pirating seems to be the easiest solution for most.
Source: Why Game of Thrones is the most pirated TV show in the World
Well you'd make a great advocate for the devil. Next we should have a blog about how selling drugs to children should be ok because they will get it somehow anyway, might as well make a profit. Haha, J.K. Anyway, I agree with you that pirating can have some positive effects on the industry as it offers exposer to a group who may otherwise not be exposed to your product. And who's to say it may or may not actually bring revenue back to your company in other ways? I know when Metallica got all up in arms about their music being pirated, they forgot to mention their increases in concert ticket revenues due to new fans being exposed to their music.
ReplyDeletePiracy is a huge issue all around the globe but it is not going to stop until more severe consequences are handed down to pirates. I would agree that waiting to see a show or having to pay for a song sucks but I am personally still too scared to be caught. You can be fined or even jailed! So not worth it. But millions of people will continue to pirate until more actions are taken to stop it. Great post!
ReplyDeletePiracy is more convenient and cheaper to do than have to wait for a movie to come out and then go to the store and buy it. I don't see piracy ever stopping because it would be too hard to stop. Sure you can go for the sources that allow people to download illegally, but there will just be other sites to download from soon after that.
ReplyDeleteI ran into this issue a few weeks ago when the Game of Thrones season premiere was released on HBO. I don't have HBO or Netflix, and I am a huge fan of the show, so I was desperate to find a way to watch it. I was going to see if I could find the show somewhere on the Internet, even if I had to pay to watch it. I ended up asking around my group of friends and one of them had HBO, so I was in luck. It is really not difficult to find the show online, and I'm not surprised that the premiere was a heavily pirated show. Convenience is the main reason most people pirate things online, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI like how you address the temptations of pirating and why people do it while at the same time still expressing that it is illegal. I think pirating has become very accepted and although it is illegal, a lot of people often forget that. I think that among a lot of college kids especially, pirating has become accepted and people forget that they are committing a crime. Even thought it is illegal, I completely agree that HBO and other companies over price their product. Netflix does not have every movie by any means, and going out and buying a movie can be any where from $5-$25 per movie. I can see why some people wouldn't want to pay that kind of money for a movie just to watch it once. Despite how expensive certain methods of movie watching may be, there are websites such a Vudu and Amazon that allow people to watch instant movies.
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