More consumers turn to online video piracy to watch content due to a lack of local availability than the price of the legal content that is accessible, a new survey suggests.
The survey by Irdeto of 1,600 adults in Australia, India, Indonesia and Singapore shows that 37% named a lack of content availability through legal channels as their top reason for consuming pirated video.
Concerns over price ranked as the second most significant factor, identified by 29% of respondents. On a country-by-country basis, only 19% of Australian respondents named pricing concerns as the most significant factor, compared to 29% in India, 36% in Indonesia and 30% in Singapore.
On average, 29% of respondents indicated that they were unlikely or extremely unlikely to consume pirated video content, and 27% stated that they were neutral.
Irdeto VP for APAC Bengt Jonsson commented that the findings prove that consumers are demanding that “high-quality and secure video content be made available in their region at an affordable price... It is without a doubt that these should be the top priorities for both pay-TV operators and over-the-top service providers in Asia Pacific today.”
When asked what would deter them from pirating video content, consumers in Australia cited protection of IP as the most significant factor while consumers in Indonesia and Singapore were more concerned about poor quality of pirated videos. In India the top concern was privacy issues.
The research also shows that smartphones (62%) and tablets (46%) are the top two devices that consumers across the four markets surveyed own or plan to buy within the next year. But smart TVs are also growing in popularity, with 34% of consumers owning or planning to purchase one over the same period.
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