New Survey Shows Pirates Are More Willing To Pay For Netflix

Do you or does anyone in your household download films, music or television shows vis the internet for free? Does your household subscribe to TV and content streaming services? These were the two questions asked in an online survey of over a thousand Australians, and the results tell a story long suspected; given the option, those who pirate will pay for content instead.

According to the latest poll from Essential, conducted from 27 to 28 January 2016, 66 per cent of Australians who download films, TV shows and music from peer-to-peer (free) sharing sites also subscribe to Netflix, Foxtel or other paid streaming service subscribers.

This appears to indicate that if the content was available via those paid streaming services, piracy wouldn’t be so prevalent.

26 per cent of respondents said they download films, music or television shows via the internet for free, which is much the same as reported in 2013’s survey. The most likely demographic to download free content are aged under 35. The least likely are aged 55 and over.

51 per cent of respondents said they subscribe to TV and content streaming services. 30 per cent subscribe to Foxtel, 25 per cent to Netflix, 7 per cent to Presto and 6 per cent to Stan. The most likely demographic to subscribe to paid content and streaming is those under 35. The least likely are those aged 55 and over.

It will be interesting to see how Netflix’s decision to crack down on the use of VPNs and proxies to access its global library (here’s some advice if you’ve been hit with the changes) will affect the rates of “free content downloads” in the coming months.


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

It’s the most popular NBN speed in Australia for a reason. Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Gizmodo, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.