DtecNet TV Piracy Season White Paper Nov 2009

White Paper Television Piracy: It’s the New Fall Season November 2009 Executive Summary Fall brought not only the most hyped new and returning shows on the U.S. television schedule, it also heralded a huge jump in worldwide trading of pirated digital copies of those shows file-‐sharing networks. Viewer interest fueled by the on-‐air and online marketing buzz surrounding the new season’s offerings sent file traders around the world looking for shows they missed or can’t get, or to catch up on story lines they may have forgotten during the summer. Fueling their appetites: Typically within hours of airing on the U.S. East Coast, even before they show on the West Coast, new episodes are uploaded to major file-‐trading networks and become instantly available worldwide. Piracy patterns appear consistent across all regions, driven by availability of some particularly popular programming. In some cases, the file-‐sharing networks sate demand for programming that may not be available legally or even just conveniently in many countries for days, months or years. Television Piracy After a quiet summer, online piracy of U.S.-‐produced TV content has spiked dramatically since Labor Day, the summer’s-‐end holiday that is a harbinger of the imminent launch of dozens of new TV shows. The U.S. release of new shows also has led to a huge jump in online trading worldwide of illegal copies of those shows. Between the summer’s lull in July and mid-‐season in October, file trading of U.S. TV shows has jumped more than four times. The increase has been particularly noticeable in Europe, but also has risen significantly over the past two months in Asia and North America (see Figure 1 below). There are several reasons for the big increase. Premieres of many new shows and splashy relaunches of favorite holdovers still begin in earnest after Labor Day on most U.S. broadcast and basic cable networks. The latest shows and the substantial marketing behind them fuel file-‐trader appetites for new content after a summer of picking through the previous season’s leftovers. The file-‐trading networks also fill a niche for TV fans seeking shows they may have missed, can’t see at all on broadcast/cable/satellite services in their part of the world or won’t be able to see for a few hours, a couple of days or even several years. © 2009, DtecNet. Reproduction Prohibited

Worldwide, patterns of piracy of U.S.-‐produced TV content were generally similar everywhere, though there are differences in scale from region to region. Piracy decreased tremendously during the summer, then began surging significantly beginning in late September and has only continued to increase since then. Figure 1: TV Piracy Breakdown by Region Television Piracy by Region Infringemenets 6/2/2013 7/2/2013 8/2/2013 9/2/2013 10/2/2013 11/2/2013 North America Europe La:n America Asia Africa Finally, the overall jump was magnified somewhat by the late-‐August shutdown of The Pirate Bay, the most prominent and popular BitTorrent site for trading of illegal copies of all kinds of movies, TV shows and other digital content. As discussed in DtecNet’s “With Pirate Bay foundering, where have file traders gone?,” piracy of all media dropped briefly but dramatically worldwide when The Pirate Bay’s trackers were disconnected Aug. 24, 2009. File traders soon shifted to other download sites, and when new TV shows began arriving later in September, piracy of the shows took off too. There are several trends noticeable within the overall rise in TV piracy. Europe leads all regions in the rate of piracy of U.S.-‐made television content. This is likely due to several reasons: • Widespread interest in U.S.-‐produced cultural content of all kinds; • Widespread access to the Internet and downloading technologies; • Widespread fluency in the English language; • Nearly simultaneous releases (and concomitant marketing support) of many shows; • A lack of legal online access to shows, making illegal downloads the only source for catching up with missed episodes. Even with widespread European piracy, however, the United States remains the country with the most television piracy, comprising about 11.6 percent of this fall’s total downloads. Given that most U.S. content targets U.S. audiences, this isn’t surprising. The Top 10 countries for piracy of U.S. TV © 2009, DtecNet. Reproduction Prohibited 2

content, which together are responsible for more than half of all TV piracy worldwide, also include several European countries, Australia, Canada and Brazil. Table 2: Top 10 Pirating Countries, U.S.-produced television content, Sep 1 – Nov 1, 2009 Rank Country 1 United States 2 United Kingdom 3 Canada 4 Brazil 5 France 6 Australia 7 Italy 8 Spain 9 Poland 10 Germany Figure 3: Country Breakdown, U.S. Produced Television Content, Sep 1 – Nov 1, 2009 Country Breakdown United States 12% United Kingdom 8% Rest of World Canada 45% 8% Brazil 5% France 5% Spain Italy Australia Germany Poland 3% 3% 6% 2% 3% About DtecNet, Inc. DtecNet is headquartered in Beverly Hills, Calif., with offices in Copenhagen, London, Paris, and Vilnius. DtecNet provides content-rights holders with market-leading solutions that track and prevent piracy of their digital media content, while generating actionable, highly granular business intelligence about worldwide demand for those assets. © 2009, DtecNet. Reproduction Prohibited 3

By monitoring the file-sharing habits of hundreds of millions of Internet users, DtecNet tracks and identifies file-sharing trends, helping rights holders understand how their content is traded on the Internet and how to make better decisions on distribution, business models, marketing and more. For more information, go to http://www.dtecnet.com. DtecNet’s Business Intelligence unit may be followed on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/dtecnetbi. For more information regarding DtecNet Business Intelligence, contact: Pam Allison VP, Business Intelligence & Strategy pja@dtecnet.com (310) 600-‐3978 © 2009, DtecNet. Reproduction Prohibited 4

DtecNet TV Piracy Season White Paper Nov 2009

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