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Piracy Outstripping Legal Video Sales?
b.burl writes to tell us a recently released report by the NDP Group supports the horror stories being fed to us by studio execs, but not quite in the way those execs would have you believe. The study shows a continued rise in video piracy compared to legal video sales. The largest target continues to be adult oriented content and TV shows, with only an estimated 5 percent being mainstream movie content. From the article: "[A]mong U.S. households with members who regularly use the Internet, 8 percent (six million households) downloaded at least one digital video file (10MB or larger) from a P2P service for free in the third quarter of 2006. Nearly 60 percent of video files downloaded from P2P sites were adult-film content, while 20 percent was TV show content and 5 percent was mainstream movie content."
Actually, there's a Blockbuster store in my town that does.
...and it is incredibly addicting. Xbox live media download has serious flaws (lack of content, lack of chapters, etc.) but it is incredibly easy to use. I've already spent $60 on there due to just being bored and having instant (well, within 5 minutes) gratification. I've since toned down my purchases, but that $60 is more than I've spent all year on DVDs and CDs.
I believe once content providers use and improve on this model pay pay to download content will approach or surpass illegal downloads.
Downloading TV episodes you "missed" is not timeshifting as was ruled fair use under Betamax.
Receiving it through the regular broadcast means and recording it yourself is timeshifting. Getting a copy from someone else who recorded it, edited it from the format it was broadcast (say, by removing commercials) and made it available to you is something completely different.
Report is from NPD Group, well who are their clients ... EMI Music (a large RIAA member).
This is not an unbiased research firm, they are a marketing company and will serve the interests of their clients.
Probably just another arm of the RIAA/MPAA. I don't see how it would possibly serve this for-profit company's interests to say anything other than downloading is theft
I watched all 11 Heros episodes over the last 3 days - right from NBC.com with very limited advertising. There was 4 or 5 commercial breaks that lasted about 15 seconds each - and showed the exact same commercial each time. It was an interesting approach. The commercials were short enough that I didn't get irritated by them, yet by showing the same one 5 times in about 40 minutes I do remember what companies were doing the advertising.
Pirate that I am, I evilly downloaded the first three episodes of Heroes because I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.
Another example would be the new version of Dr. Who which came out in 2005. Just because Sci-Fi & BBC America thought the show would not do well in the US...but heaven forbid did great in Canada & being co-produced by CBC...we had to wait 18 months to catch the first season on Sci-Fi & now the first season on BBC America...2 years after the premiere in other countries. I even watch it on Saturday nights on BBC America.
If it wasn't for people like me who downloaded & spread through word-of-mouth about how great the series was...neither of these entities would be broadcasting it now.
Too bad we can't get the Torchwood or Dr. Who Confidential series on BBC America either.
Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia. - Charles M. Schulz
Pr0n is all the same???? Are you serious???
Here's some of what you're missing:
Straight hardcore, girl on girl, 3-somes, BJ-only, HJ-only, foursomes, orgies, orgies with vampires (my personal fave), black porn, white porn, asian porn (another fun one), watersports (need to take a leak?), bukakke (are you thirsty?), double stuffing (only if your buddy and you are REALLY secure), gay hardcore, gay orgies (not my cup of tea), amateur, amateur upskirts (that creepy guy in the clubs with a vidcam and a raincoat on), amateur db (downblouse viewing), latex fetish, puffy fetish (these are hilarious! almost as much fun as a ball-gag, a ball-pean hammer, and a fifth of Jack)..... and I haven't even touched on the various sub-genres of poop pr0n!
Hmmm.... off to the newsgroups.....
Also, companies do market research to determine who has seen their advertisements (and what their impression was), so if you happen to have a moment to answer those questions on a streetcorner or in a shopping mall, you may show up as a viewer that way.
So... there's more ways to get "counted" as a viewer than just being signed onto the full-time Nielsen program. (Also, if you want companies to produce products you like, including entertainment, it's a good idea to respond to market research when it's convenient to do so.)
Don't you wish your girlfriend was a geek like me?
In defense of porn, you can't really expect them to scale new heights of originality with their subject matter. There's only so many variations of suck/lick/fuck you can do.