It has come to light that a large percentage of consumers in the U.K. are now willing to pay for the facility of streaming movies online, but at the same time, online piracy continues unabated in most parts of the world.
A study conducted by KPMG has shown that while users are not very keen to pay for streaming TV shows, about 64% of U.K. users do not mind having to pay for streaming movies.
The percentage of users willing to pay is also likely to increase as more streaming services now become available, thereby increasing choice and eventually lowering prices due to competition.
The awareness of online streaming services is also growing rapidly according to the BBC. The popularity of these online streaming services, though, is growing at the cost of the popularity of other traditional media channels such as reading and watching TV.
In fact, it has been found that the reading of newspapers, magazines and even books, online is growing at a very rapid rate. The use of these online services is growing not only for desktop users but also among users of mobiles and tablets.
At the same time, however, online piracy continues to proliferate and is turning into a major issue involving international sting operations by the FBI as with the arrest of Kim Dotcom, the founder of the file sharing site Megaupload in New Zealand last week.
The U.S. Congress is also trying to pass new, more stringent legislation against online piracy in the form of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), but this is being vehemently opposed by various sections including Facebook and Google, who feel that this would amount to censorship. Wikipedia had even undertaken a total online blackout for 24 hours to protest against the proposed legislation.
Such dramatic news from the USA is also likely to influence consumers in the UK to subscribe to movie streaming services in order to avoid persecution for downloading or streaming copyrighted content illegaly.
