Big Spending Pirates?

UK Pirates Are Also Big Spenders

The recent Ofcom’s report revealed that one out of six British citizens is involved in downloading copyrighted goods. But on the other side, the report in question states that the UK pirates are also spending more than the average consumer.
The country’s communications regulator, Ofcom, launched a survey to find out about the citizens’ download habits. It has published the results on the 20th of November, which reflected the answers of 4.400 Internet users (12 and older).

According to an overall look, 16% of the respondents had at least once downloaded unauthorized content, and 25% of them confirmed that they only download pirated material. However, the same survey also found out that 12% of the respondents turned out to be so-called “hybrid pirates”. In other words, they aren’t just downloading pirated material, but also spend up to 3 times on legitimate content than a regular consumer.

Apparently, hybrid pirates can be seen as the most dedicated spenders, with most of their expenditures going to the box-office, concerts, and DVDs. While a regular consumer spends £35.57 on movies, a hybrid pirate spends £56.11. As for music, the pirates are noticed spending £77.24, while the regular buyers pay only £43.31. TV content accounts for £8.28 from normal users, and hybrid pirates spend £25.69.

In addition, one more interesting fact was discovered by the report – the hybrid pirates are likely to pay more for content than regular customers. For instance, hybrid pirates are ready to pay 76p per song while a regular person is only willing to pay just 72p. Not a very significant difference, but still is a difference. When it comes to movies, the pirates can pay £4.92 against legitimate users’ £3.74.

The conclusion can be made that users who pirate and purchase goods via legal channels are also the most committed. The natural question arises: is piracy helping the industry or not? It might happen that this commitment, which is a substantial source of profits, may be possible only because people have access to pirated material. Indeed, although the music industry complains that the past 10 years were a disaster for the industry, the facts are telling the opposite.