Streaming Services Put a Dent in Online Video Piracy, Finds IPO

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The U.K. government's Intellectual Property Office gave credence yesterday to the argument that offering consumers fair-priced online access to content is the best way to combat illegal streaming.

Releasing data commissioned from Kantar Media's Online Copyright Infringement Tracker, the IPO showed that 52 percent of U.K. consumers now use streaming services. Additionally, 39 percent download content, an option that's becoming less popular.

As streaming has grown in popularity, piracy has ebbed: U.K. consumers getting online video and music exclusively from legal sources has grown by 3 percent to 44 percent at the end of 2015.

Piracy continues to be a problem in the U.K, with 5 percent of U.K. consumers exclusively accessing illegal content. In the last 3 months, TV shows and movies were pirated over 50 million times.

"I am extremely pleased to see that there has been a decline in infringement and that consumers appear to be turning towards legitimate streaming en masse," says Baroness Neville-Rolfe, the Minister for Intellectual Property.

Kantar sampled over 5,000 U.K. citizens age 12 and over to gather its data.

The June 2016 issue of Streaming Media examines online video piracy in depth, finding that leading anti-piracy companies can't prove their methods are effective, but the growth in legitimate subscription services has shown to make an impact.

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