Australian’s love affair with downloading films and television shows illegally is less about breaking the law and more about a public statement about services and affordability. Notably, the catalyst for the public spotlight on torrenting was the availability of the HBO series Game of Thrones. The issue with Game of Thrones is the restriction of only Foxtel subscribers being able to access the series. However, the Netflix exclusive series House of Cards was also aired on Foxtel. If Foxtel would ‘play the game’ more alongside the likes of Netflix and Stan, and not hold exclusive broadcasting rights over certain content, then perhaps illegal downloading wouldn’t be such an issue. Furthermore, when looking at the streaming services Netflix, Presto and Stan, if a consumer holds accounts with all three providers, they still have a limited amount of choice with regards to new release movies and television shows. With regards to films specifically, a consumer can get around this issue by having Apple TV, but this means that if a consumer wants to do the right thing and have legal access to content, they essentially need multiple subscriptions. However, US citizens have access to a lot more content on the US Netflix. While an Australian consumer can utilise a VPN to access the US version, it came become a pain in the next for using through a television (for people who don’t want to be limited to watching content from a laptop or iPad). I also believe that a crucial component of this debate lies in affordability. Renting a film from Apple TV is quite expensive, and in some cases, more expensive than in the good old days of going to a rental DVD store. Moreover, if you love a movie and want to own it, you can expect to pay over $30 for a Bluray copy. If prices for purchasing physical and digital copies of films are reduced significantly, then perhaps people would be less inclined to use services such as The Pirate Bay. Most people want to do the right thing, and in many ways, torrenting is a public protest to inflexible and outdated models of film and television distribution. Today’s news regarding the impending blocking rights of major Australian ISP’s will have little effect on people’s desire and ability to torrent content. It is the opinion of The Clifton Review that perhaps our film and TV content providers need to rethink their business models, and perhaps this should apply to the industry more broadly.
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About the authorObservations and opinions of popular culture, covering everything from music, film, television, people and other things. Archives
June 2018
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