Streaming services are 'killing' piracy, New Zealand study claims

Big quote: "The research confirms something many internet pundits have long instinctively believed to be true: piracy isn't driven by law-breakers, it's driven by people who can't easily or affordably get the content they want."

Recent studies conducted by Vocus Group NZ (a New Zealand-based telecommunications organization) reveal that media piracy is primarily caused by failures on the content provider side, and not an innate desire to break the law among pirates themselves.

Obviously, free content is free content. As such, there will always be a sizable number of individuals who will choose to access content illegitimately at no cost no matter what media providers do.

However, Vocus claims that offering customers content cheaply and conveniently is a much better way to win over pirates than site blocking or other more heavy-handed measures. This is why services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Spotify are as popular (and successful) as they are.

"The research confirms something many internet pundits have long instinctively believed to be true: piracy isn't driven by law-breakers, it's driven by people who can't easily or affordably get the content they want," Vocus Group said in a statement.

"The research confirms something many internet pundits have long instinctively believed to be true: piracy isn't driven by law-breakers, it's driven by people who can't easily or affordably get the content they want."

The study in question was conducted among "more than a thousand" New Zealand residents from "all walks of life." Researchers found that when content was made available to participants at a "fair price," they were more than willing to pay for it instead of resorting to piracy.

Indeed, according to Vocus, only 3 percent of survey respondents preferred to watch pirated content. By contrast, a whopping 29 percent selected paid streaming services (like Netflix and Spotify) as their preferred content consumption method.

With their findings in mind, Vocus Group feels that piracy as a whole is dying out; at least as it relates to the music and video industries.

Apparently, even study participants that occasionally watch pirated content say they'd be willing to stop if existing streaming services brought costs down or expanded their content libraries.