Journal publication referenced in video:
Sarah J. Frick, Deborah Fletcher, Austin C. Smith, Pirate and chill: The effect of netflix on illegal streaming, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Volume 209, 2023, Pages 334-347, ISSN 0167-2681, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2023.03.013. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268123000793) Abstract: Over 188 million people in the United States use a subscription video streaming service, yet digital piracy remains prevalent and costs the U.S. economy an estimated $29.2 billion annually. This paper investigates the relationship between a movie’s availability on Netflix, the largest video subscription service, and intent to illegally stream the movie. We leverage a contract dispute that caused Epix (a cable network company) to move all its movies from Netflix to Hulu, representing a substantial decrease in the legal streaming availability of these movies. Using a difference-in-differences design, we find that reducing legal streaming access via the removal of Epix movies from Netflix results in a 20% increase in piracy intent relative to movies that remained on Netflix, as measured by Google search volume. This study contributes to the understanding of the substitution between legal streaming services and movie piracy and has implications for content owners deciding what platform to offer their movie on. Keywords: Piracy; Online streaming; Digital goods; Netflix; Google searches
does it though?
Can’t see how it can, it’s not like if that money isn’t spent on entertainment then it’s just lost, it’s just spent on other goods and services or put in savings that the banks loan out to other people to generate economic activity. Unless people are literally burning the money or exclusively spending it on foreign goods and services it’s not costing the economy per se.
That assumes that everyone who pirates would become subscribers if they weren’t pirating. In reality, many people still wouldn’t pay if they couldn’t pirate what they want. Others may sign up for a month, binge watch what they want, then cancel for the rest of the year.
Even if they would otherwise have subscribed, that money will be spent elsewhere in the economy, its potential revenue the streaming companies couldn’t secure, it’s not a loss to the economy unless it’s a foreign user.
Parasites got a wild imagination