Is The Cost Of Living To Blame For The Rise In Illegal Streaming?
Illegal streaming isn’t anything new, for years people have taken to the internet, attempting to dodge paying high prices for sports events, even saving themselves a trip to the cinema by finding camera-recorded footage of a movie premiere.
Over the last few years, piracy has been at its all-time high, particularly with students. According to the UK TV Licensing team, over “33,000 young people aged 18-24 were caught streaming the likes of BBC iPlayer, and ITV Hub without a registered license, but is the cost of living to blame for this?
This is the case for Luke, a student based in Ormskirk who claims it’s almost impossible to afford streaming platforms in the current financial hardship. “I started streaming illegally in lockdown as the cinemas were closed but continued as it was so accessible. I used to have Netflix but with everything increasing it became unaffordable, especially as a student.”
With multiple companies including the likes of Netflix not offering a discounted rate for students, it seems unlikely these figures will decrease anytime soon however, that hasn’t gone unnoticed by the British government which continues to crack down hard on piracy.
Only last week, Mark Gould, described as the ‘mastermind’ of an illegal streaming service, was sentenced to 11 years in prison. Gould and his company had made over seven million pounds in the last five years for providing illegal screenings of premier league matches to 50,000 subscribers.
As piracy becomes normalised in the student culture, the risks may be more severe than ever for engaging in the activity, but will that make students think twice?
That’s the case for Sam, a law student who admits to past mistakes of piracy, now attempting to turn a new leaf to avoid charges that would affect his future hopes of becoming a lawyer.
“I’ll be honest, seeing how serious illegal streaming has become scared me. Being in university, it’s hard to afford every sporting event I want to watch, but it’s the law and it’s only fair. I don’t want to ruin my chances of a future by watching a football match I can pay for, it’s a huge risk and I believe others need to identify that too.”
With over two million households cancelling streaming service subscriptions last year due to the cost of living, it seems not only students are struggling to justify the extortionate prices. A poll by The Daily Mail showed 23% of participants find it less enjoyable to stay indoors after cancelling ‘non-essential outgoings’ such as streaming subscriptions.
Only time will be able to determine how this will affect the current rate of piracy but with more people than ever trying to find cheap alternatives, the problem may not be heading anywhere for the foreseeable future.
Feature image credit: alexlmx2015