Internet TV Piracy Set To Rise

Consumers are increasingly obtaining music, movies and television shows via peer-to-peer networks, according to a new report from media services Magna Global, damaging advertisers by stripping out commercials in the process.

Brian Wieser, author of the report, vice president and director of industry analysis at Magna Global said: “Video trading over peer-to-peer networks is today where the music industry was in 1999. It’s growing and should continue to grow at a fairly rapid clip.”

Downloads of the television show 24 on BitTorrent networks nearly tripled from an average of 35,000 per episode in the 2003-2004 season, to 95,000 for the 2004-2005 season.

A report from UK research firm Envisional showed that the ten most popular pirated TV downloads worldwide are; 24, Stargate Atlantis, Desperate Housewives, Battlestar Galactica and Lost. Much of the downloading of American shows occurs outside the US, especially in the UK.

German based SR Consulting found that season one episodes of Joey were downloaded 25,000 times in the US and 100,000 globally between January and February.

Often, television shows available on peer-to-peer networks are stripped of commercials, but according to Wieser the growing popularity of peer-to-peer networks need not be completely bad news for marketers.

Wieser suggests that advertisers might be able to find ways to reach consumers who use file-sharing networks. One possibility, according to the report, is to spread branded entertainment, virally, through the networks.

Research published by Informa Telecoms & Media states that sales of online films look set to make almost $1 billion by 2010, with the impact of piracy predicted to be less severe than expected.

The report reveals that the cost to the industry from digital piracy was $858.5 million in 2004, predicted to increase to $1,7 billion in 2010.

Magna Global: www.magnaglobal.com