Singapore – Millions of people tuned in to see which of their favorite films won that coveted golden statue at the 87th Academy Awards®. And while the majority of those fans have paid a premium to see these films legally, an increasing number of others chose to pirate those films instead, according to new data from Irdeto.
Irdeto monitored illegal downloads of films in the U.S. and over 200 countries worldwide from 1 January through 14 February. The company revealed that the Academy Awards draws massive consumer interest outside the U.S., evidenced by a 385% increase in piracy worldwide for nominated films following the announcements on January 15. While Gone Girl was the early frontrunner after nominations, American Sniper took the lead and is currently the most pirated film in the world post-nomination, according to the data. This global piracy activity can be seen visually in Irdeto’s 2015 Academy Awards Piracy Heat Map.
If the awards were decided based on illegal downloads following the nomination, the category winners on Sunday would have been:
• Best Picture – American Sniper (1,389,819 downloads worldwide since 15 January; the top title downloaded in the U.S. as well as over 100 other countries).
• Best Director – Alejandro González Iñárritu, Birdman (796,697 downloads worldwide since 15 January; the #1 downloaded film in both Mexico and Spain).
• Best Actress – Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl (1,252,074 downloads worldwide since 15 January).
• Best Actor – Bradley Cooper, American Sniper (1,389,819 downloads worldwide since 15 January).
Hollywood Screener Leakage
Nominated films were pirated from a number of formats including Blu-ray discs, HDTV, CAM (cameras), DVD and other sources. However, Hollywood screeners specifically accounted for a substantial 31% of the total illegal downloads tracked between 15 January and 14 February. Hollywood screeners are traditionally Blu-Ray discs or DVDs (although some studios are now moving to online distribution) given to film critics, awards voters and other film industry professionals for an advanced screening. Six nominated movies currently unavailable for retail purchase on Blu-Ray, DVD, VOD or legal streaming/download sites saw the majority of piracy coming directly from these screeners: American Sniper, The Imitation Game, Wild, Selma, Whiplash and Still Alice. While not every illegal download can be considered a lost sale, Irdeto estimates a potential over $40 million in retail revenue that could have been captured for these six titles, if they had been made available to consumers.
Windowing and Lack of Legal Online Options
While Gone Girl, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Boyhood, and Two Days, One Night were released for VOD, streaming, Blu-ray, and DVD through distributors in the United States and select countries worldwide prior to the awards, this did not actually slow down piracy due to the windowing gap between theatrical release and consumer availability. For example, Two Days, One Night leaked on 28 September, 2014 and retail release in the U.S. was on 20 October, 2014. Some films have already leaked and the window is still quite far out. Still Alice leaked 27 November, 2014 and is not scheduled for release in the U.S. until July 2015 while American Sniper leaked 6 January, 2014 and no release date is currently scheduled.
Piracy Worldwide
Irdeto found a spike in piracy for almost every country following the 15 January nominations. Outside of the U.S., the top ten countries that account for the most illegal downloads (totaling over 3 million) are: Russia, Italy, United Kingdom, Brazil, Canada, India, Australia, Spain, South Korea and the Netherlands. Alternatively, the countries with the highest percentage of piracy per Internet user population were Australia, Italy, Greece, Ireland and Portugal.
While legal video content in various formats is often available in the U.S. sooner than the rest of the world, the combined illegal downloads for California, Texas, Florida, New York, Illinois and Pennsylvania still accounted for 5.8% of total global downloads. Some people will always choose to pirate due to cost, convenience and personal preference, even if the viewing quality of the pirated version is inferior to the legal alternative.
A quick read report for the data highlighted above can be found here and on the Irdeto website, as can more information about the company’s Piracy Control and Business Intelligence services.
