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Free TV-Show Streaming Hurts Online Sales, Research Finds (torrentfreak.com)
New research from Carnegie Mellon University shows that online piracy is not the only worry for TV distributors. Based on Downton Abbey streaming and sales data provided by PBS, as reported by TorrentFreak, the researchers find that free legal streams can significantly reduce download sales. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that free streaming options should be banned. From the report: The researchers were able to estimate the impact in a natural experiment, since PBS was required to pull the free streams for all episodes at the same time. This means that some were streamable for more than a month, while others only for a week, or two. In addition, they had sales data for several seasons, allowing them to make an alternative comparison between years, where the streaming windows varied. In both cases, they show that free streaming cannibalizes download sales. "Our analysis in our primary specification indicates that availability in the free streaming window reduces EST sales by 8.4%. Using an alternative specification we find that free availability reduces EST sales by 9.9%," they write. The negative effect is not unexpected. However, it doesn't mean that it is wrong to offer free streaming in the long run, as there are several positive side-effects. That's where the puzzle starts to get complicated.
You don't say.
I will pay a reasonable price (*) for commercial free episodes of the shows I like. I mostly use Hulu with the commercial free option, and would pay double if they actually had more of the content out there. Now things are going to disparate services, or wholly owned services (likes individual apps from networks themselves), and all without even the option of paying for commercial free. There's no commercial free option for Sling, there's no commercial free version for PS Vue... why pay for a service and still be saddled with commercials? At the same time, iTMS style per-episode pricing adds up too quickly to make it worth it.
At the same time, neither will I illegally download someone else's IP. I don't have the right to unilaterally take that away from them just because I don't want to pay, but if they made it easier and more reasonably priced to get the content legally then it's not hard to imagine they'd be increasing their sales.
Of course, some selfish cheapskates wouldn't pay no matter how reasonable it was, but then they wouldn't be losing out on the sales from those people, either.
So yeah, I like the Walking Dead... and I will wait until next year to watch this year's episodes commercial free on Netflix. I don't care about spoilers, and I'm generally a patient person - especially when it comes to something so inconsequential as TV shows.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
All I can say is *DUH*.
Why would I pay to download episodes on itunes or whatnot of the same TV shows that I can stream entirely legally for a week following the broadcast from the tv station's website? While I do have to put up with commercials, the online ads seem to be nowhere near as insufferably long or as frequent as the ads seem to be on television these days (although they are unarguably more repetitive).
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
I wonder how much that study cost them. I'm glad they have a crack team of scientists verifying common sense.
Scientists verify common sense because it is frequently wrong.