‘Watchmen’ and ‘Heroes’: The Most Pirated Shows
Watchmen and Heroes - The Most Pirated Shows
Research firm Big Champagne has published a list of the top 10 “most pirated” film and television shows.
Zack Snyder’s Watchmen stole the no.1 position as the most pirated film with 16,906,452 illegal downloads.
NBC’s Heroes was the most pirated television show with 54,562,012 illegal downloads.
According to the report, visits to file-sharing torrent sites, which index legal video and music files as well as illegal ones, have nearly doubled in the last year. Big Champagne claim film and television piracy continues to rise.
“Millions of television viewers now access free, unauthorised versions of favorite shows at least some of the time,” says Eric Garland, chief executive of Big Champagne.
“This is a socially acceptable form of casual piracy – and it is replacing viewing hours.”
Apparently 47% of all illegal downloads occurred in the United States itself.
Most Popular Film Torrents
Watchmen; 16,906,452
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; 13, 133, 137
Yes Man; 13,038,364
Twilight; 11,632,645
Fast and Furious; 10,613,668
Gran Torino; 9,880,700
Marley and Me; 9,099,219
Slumdog Millionaire; 8,840,884
Bolt; 8,690,633
Australia; 8,628,012
Most Popular TV Torrents
Heroes; 54,562,012
Lost; 51,151,396
24; 34,119,093
Prison Break; 29,283,591
House; 26,277,954
Fringe; 21,434,755
Desperate Housewives; 21,378,412
Grey’s Anatomy; 19,916,775
Gossip Girl; 19,706,870
Smallville; 19,598,999
What can we make of all these numbers?
First of all, Watchmen and Heroes are far more popular than traditional viewer tracking methods might indicate. Popularity should equate to increased revenue shouldn’t it? It strikes me that rather than looking at these numbers in terms of income that the film and television industry has lost, we should be taking an innovative approach and considering the potential revenue if the studios can capitalize on them.
I’ve written many times before that I have doubts that the average consumer wants to break the law. There will always be those who will run the risk of illegal file downloading, however it is my view that the average consumer doesn’t want to break the law, they simply want to see their favorite show or movies as soon as they are released in the quickest possible way that they can.
Let’s look at potential for a moment and use the stats on Watchmen for a little brainstorming.
Almost 17 million downloads. What would you pay to download and watch Watchmen? I don’t know many people that wouldn’t pay $1 to download and watch it. That’s potentially $17M extra dollars for the studio. Or what about $2? Most people would pay $2 to download and watch their favorite film, surely. That’s $34M+ in potential, virtually immediate new revenue for the studio. Personally I’d happily pay $3 if I could download the film and watch it whenever I wanted. At $3 a pop, that would equate to around $50M. That’s more than a quarter of Watchmen’s total worldwide box office revenue!
Multiply those numbers by the lesser downloads for all other movies and bang, there’s a billion dollar industry.
Imagine if you could make $1 for each television show downloaded. On the top 10 most popular tv torrents alone we’re talking additional revenue of around $350M. That’s probably going to top $1 Billion if we factor in all of the television shows out there plus all of the private torrents and other file sharing methods not included in Big Champagne’s numbers.
These are just sweeping estimates, but of course they don’t take into account revenue from potential advertising that can be embedded in the download clients or even within the shows themselves, such as ads before and after.
Neither do they take into account ongoing revenue from shows that are actually popular, but that get cancelled because they are deemed unprofitable as a result of piracy (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles anyone?).
Basically there is a multi-billion dollar industry just waiting for the industry to tap into if only they would switch their thinking caps on and embrace internet downloads instead of fighting them.
Of course, conversion rates from illegal to legal downloads will never be 100%, but then neither will attempts to stop piracy ever achieve 100% success. Neither do these numbers factor in considerations such as the impact on DVD sales, the impact on TV Network sales and so on and so on.
I’m not claiming the solution is simple. But we’re talking billions of dollars here. Surely if the hundreds of millions that are being spent on counter-piracy could be diverted into innovation, I can’t help but think a whole new revenue stream would open up. What is presently “piracy” would become a monumental commercial machine virtually overnight.
Just thinking out loud…
Source: BBC
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August 29th, 2009 at 3:07 am
how are Doctor Who or Torchwood not on these lists i download them soon i can
August 29th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
The list of shows and films are all American (even “Australia”), Doctor Who and Torchwood are both UK shows.