Content piracy is a big problem and it’s hurting your ROI

It estimated that lost revenues amounted to at least $29.2 billion every year — and maybe much more — with over 80% of that piracy happening via streaming. While lost revenue is the most obvious result, the piracy research study noted that widespread online movie piracy also leads to job losses and reduced GDP, potentially displacing hundreds of thousands of jobs across the video content, production and distribution value chain in the U.S. alone.

Given the magnitude of these losses, it is not surprising that advertising revenue is also suffering: “It’s a worldwide problem that affects the whole chain from rights owners to pay-TV platforms. Piracy is now a sophisticated, industrial scale problem, with more than 3,000 black market pirate services. Recent estimates show the top 600 pirate sites generating $260 million of advertising revenue.” That’s revenue lost by legitimate sources.

As digital downloads, and now streaming, have made it easier for content piracy to obtain and distribute illegal copies, movie studios have continually shrunk the release window over the last several years, moving to get their latest blockbuster online before pirates gain traction with their illegal copies and eat into ROI. With secondary release windows now down to weeks (or even less in some cases), studios must focus on protecting their investment inside and outside the theater.