Digital piracy killing the video star

Illegal downloading and copying now seen as major threat

Robert Jaques, vnunet.com 04 Jan 2005

Half of television and movie industry professionals consider piracy as a threat to their bottom lines, and over a quarter have already lost revenue due to the illegal theft or reproduction of their intellectual property, newly published research has claimed.

A recent survey of variety, broadcasting, cable and multi-channel news organisations by market research firm In-Stat suggested that many see digital piracy as a major threat to the home entertainment and theatrical film business.

The survey found that more than one-third of film industry insiders saw a strong impact on their business due to illegal downloading or copying of digital content.

"Piracy was the number one concern among emerging threats," said Michael Wolf, a principal analyst at In-Stat.

"This is no surprise given the impact it is already having, according to those in the home entertainment market. In turn, those in the TV space saw personal video recorders as the biggest threat to their business in the future."

In-Stat also found that senior executives in the entertainment industry were more likely than others to see piracy as a threat, possibly due to their focus on bottom-line issues, and seeing the bigger picture of the business.

Apple and Microsoft were found to represent potential competitive threats to the entertainment business. Opinions on which computer company had the best products currently on the market ran two-to-one in favour of Apple, but Microsoft was found to be strongly gaining ground.

More than half of respondents saw the video game market as either 'somewhat' or 'very' important to their business in coming years.

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