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Netflix Loses Customers, Piracy Increases

Netflix hasn’t had a good year so far, and that’s putting it mildly. Because the streaming service recently lost subscribers for the first time in a long time. Since then, Netflix has been looking for ways to get out of the crisis, because at the same time it is also clear that users are again resorting to illegal offers.

For years, those in the streaming business saw the problem of fragmentation and rising subscription costs looming. In other words, the services are not only increasing in number, but they are also becoming more and more expensive. Market leader Netflix especially feels this, because the streaming giant, which is geared to growth, has even lost subscribers lately.

Subscribers, who are no longer able or willing to pay for all available streaming offers, resort to tried and tested means: file sharing. This is evident from current figures from anti-piracy service provider Muso. This is also somewhat paradoxical because years ago Netflix was partly or even largely responsible for curbing illegal downloads of movies and series.

fragmentation and excessive costs

While piracy never went away completely, many simply no longer bothered to download something that was sometimes annoying when you could get it at the touch of a button for a relatively cheap subscription – similar to what Spotify did in the music business. Infographic streaming battle: Amazon and Netflix in Germany against each other In a guest article on Forbes as well as in your own blog writes Muso boss Andy Chatterley (via TorrentFreak) that piracy is becoming interesting again for many. There are two main reasons for this: fragmentation and price increases.

This means that the number of illegal downloads of Netflix content reached 11.4 percent in the US and 16 percent worldwide last June. However, the trend towards more piracy is affecting the entire entertainment industry: data from Muso shows that piracy in all media sectors increased by 25 percent in the first six months of 2022 compared to the same period in 2021.

Belts are tensioned

Chatterley: “Faced with an increasingly cluttered streaming landscape, consumers are counting and realizing that access to all the shows they want to see is not a viable expense when the grocery bill has doubled and they cycle or carpool to get around. .” While Spotify offers a complete range of almost all music available, there is nothing quite like it in the TV and home theater sector.

Chatterley doesn’t blame pirates, but manages to put an end to it: “By offering a comprehensive and cheap service, you make piracy less attractive.” But he knows full well that this isn’t realistic: “But as content providers invest billions in their platforms and are determined to keep their shows exclusive to these platforms, this seems like pure fantasy. The subscriber decline seems to continue and piracy sites will continue to do so.” embrace.” Piracy File Sharing Keyboard Filesharer Software Piracy Button.