By Andy Chatterley, CEO of MUSO
The world is gripped by Coronavirus COVID-19 and it is having a significant impact on society, culture and the global economy. As more and more countries go into lock-down, closing schools, public gatherings and enforcing mandatory stay-at-home policies, MUSO is seeing some initial data trends indicating a potentially significant increase in piracy.The announcement to postpone the release of the latest Bond film ‘No Time To Die’, from April to November 2020 due to concerns over the coronavirus' impact on cinema, has made headline news around the world. It brings into sharp focus the falling box office revenues, especially where the virus has taken a grip.
This was the case in China, South Korea, Italy, Norway, Denmark, Greece and other countries around the world. Inevitably, people will still want to watch the latest cinema releases, just not in a cinema, but from the comfort of their own home, laptop or mobile.
Huge economic losses
Across the whole of 2019, MUSO tracked over 174 billion visits to piracy sites. Piracy activity was already high, but early data indicates it may well become considerably higher. The general fear and uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 and cinema closures mean that unsuspecting internet users – and moreover, non-traditional piracy users – whilst looking to find a stream of a film they may have seen at the cinema in a few clicks stumble upon piracy. They then discover they can watch '1917', 'The Invisible Man', 'Jojo Rabbit', 'Birds Of Prey', 'Parasite' and everything else they may have wanted to watch at the cinema but now don’t need to.
It’s long been known that the whole movie ecosystem suffers huge economic losses from piracy, but conversely, there is also significant gain from understanding this audience’s behaviour. Which films are popular and where; what genres should be commissioned; what films to buy and what data to leverage negotiations, inform marketing plans and audience activation, to name but a few.
Across the whole of 2019, MUSO tracked over 174 billion visits to piracy sites. Piracy activity was already high, but early data indicates it may well become considerably higher. The general fear and uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 and cinema closures mean that unsuspecting internet users – and moreover, non-traditional piracy users – whilst looking to find a stream of a film they may have seen at the cinema in a few clicks stumble upon piracy. They then discover they can watch '1917', 'The Invisible Man', 'Jojo Rabbit', 'Birds Of Prey', 'Parasite' and everything else they may have wanted to watch at the cinema but now don’t need to.
It’s long been known that the whole movie ecosystem suffers huge economic losses from piracy, but conversely, there is also significant gain from understanding this audience’s behaviour. Which films are popular and where; what genres should be commissioned; what films to buy and what data to leverage negotiations, inform marketing plans and audience activation, to name but a few.
Consumption with no barriers
Piracy is a level playing field. No walled data-garden, no exclusivity, no windowing and no theatrical release. It’s all there: consumption with no barriers. Just as the data shows staggering amounts of demands it shows emerging trends. Take Steven Soderbergh’s 2011 film 'Contagion' for example, where a mysterious virus starts in Hong Kong and spreads throughout the world. As news of COVID-19 escalated, we saw something interesting. Way back on July 1st 2019, MUSO tracked 29 visits to streaming sites globally for 'Contagion'. Not exactly an in-demand title by anyone’s standards.
On January 7th 2020, when Health Officials announced they had identified the coronavirus, demand for 'Contagion' had increased to 546 visits. But by January 30th 2020, when the coronavirus was declared a global emergency, visits to streaming sites for 'Contagion' increased to 30,418 on that single day alone. Although not an especially high number compared to the piracy numbers for blockbuster titles, the average daily visits for 'Contagion' increased by an astonishing 5609% in January 2020.
Piracy is a level playing field. No walled data-garden, no exclusivity, no windowing and no theatrical release. It’s all there: consumption with no barriers. Just as the data shows staggering amounts of demands it shows emerging trends. Take Steven Soderbergh’s 2011 film 'Contagion' for example, where a mysterious virus starts in Hong Kong and spreads throughout the world. As news of COVID-19 escalated, we saw something interesting. Way back on July 1st 2019, MUSO tracked 29 visits to streaming sites globally for 'Contagion'. Not exactly an in-demand title by anyone’s standards.
On January 7th 2020, when Health Officials announced they had identified the coronavirus, demand for 'Contagion' had increased to 546 visits. But by January 30th 2020, when the coronavirus was declared a global emergency, visits to streaming sites for 'Contagion' increased to 30,418 on that single day alone. Although not an especially high number compared to the piracy numbers for blockbuster titles, the average daily visits for 'Contagion' increased by an astonishing 5609% in January 2020.
Imperative to protect content
The days ahead are uncertain for all of us. The forecasts that the movie industry could lose an estimated $5 billion due to COVID-19 now seems conservative. No-one knows how long this will continue; we don’t know just how big the losses might actually be.
With digital piracy increasing during these times it is imperative for rights holders to protect their content in order to maximise its value and to drive fans and demand to licensed platforms. Systems such as MUSO Protect, powered by our unrivalled piracy database, can help protecting digital content in the most impactful way by targeting the highest traffic piracy sites first, removing infringing files and links quickly and permanently.
One thing we can be sure of is that people will find a way to watch what they want to watch, and that piracy demand is going to escalate. But it is not because large parts of the world have confined their citizens home that such behaviour should be rewarded.
Andy Chatterley, CEO and Co-Founder of British piracy tracking company MUSO. This is an edited version of a white paper which can be found in full here.
The days ahead are uncertain for all of us. The forecasts that the movie industry could lose an estimated $5 billion due to COVID-19 now seems conservative. No-one knows how long this will continue; we don’t know just how big the losses might actually be.
With digital piracy increasing during these times it is imperative for rights holders to protect their content in order to maximise its value and to drive fans and demand to licensed platforms. Systems such as MUSO Protect, powered by our unrivalled piracy database, can help protecting digital content in the most impactful way by targeting the highest traffic piracy sites first, removing infringing files and links quickly and permanently.
One thing we can be sure of is that people will find a way to watch what they want to watch, and that piracy demand is going to escalate. But it is not because large parts of the world have confined their citizens home that such behaviour should be rewarded.
Andy Chatterley, CEO and Co-Founder of British piracy tracking company MUSO. This is an edited version of a white paper which can be found in full here.
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