Piracy to exceed US$67 billion by 2023

The value of pirate video services accessed by pay TV and non-pay TV consumers has been projected to exceed US$67 billion by 2023. 

According to a new study from Parks Associates, if 10% of pay TV subscribers discontinued paying for the service in favour of piracy it could cost operators US$6 billion.

The report also found that the majority of “publicly acknowledged antipiracy efforts” from US pay TV operators focus on the detection and reduction of credential sharing.

Elizabeth Parks, president of Parks Associates said: “More than 12.5 million pay-TV households accessed pirate video in the US in 2019, a low number compared to the Asia and Pacific region, where there are many more users but lower ARPU. Video providers are carefully monitoring this threat and establishing dedicated teams and solutions to respond to piracy.”

A previous report from the firm had estimated that of the US$9.1 billion lost in 2019 to credential sharing by US video providers, 28% (about US$2.5 billion) was lost due to piracy.

Steven Hawley, contributing analyst, Parks Associates, and managing director of Piracy Monitor said: “The rest of the US$8.4 billiion was attributed to other means, such as theft of video content from production, from distribution, from jail-broken consumer devices, and from hosting by other pirates.”