Film Piracy
It doesn't affect me.. does it?
TOPIC
The Effect of Piracy on the Revenue and Quality of Movies Supplied in the Bollywood Film Industry in India.
PURPOSE
For consumers to know the consequences of their actions so they may make good decisions when choosing how to consume content.
INTRODUCTION
With the proliferation of Video Cassette Recorders (VCRs) and largely unregulated cable television in the 1980s, India saw an increase in unpaid airing and viewership of films. With little to no laws against piracy, businesses cropped up selling pirated movies in all languages. For the purpose of this story, we will look at piracy of Hindi films, known as Bollywood, in India.
India, is, and has been, the largest producer of movies in the world, thanks to its population of 1.3 billion people, who welcome entertainment with open arms. For example, n 2006, US producers made 500 movies, while India made 1000.
When the VCR was introduced in the market in India in the early 1980s, video-cassette libraries began increasing, reaching 30,000 by the late 1980s (Mittal, 1985). With more disposable income to spend on entertainment, big families would pool in money and invest in a VCR, and then rent out/buy cassettes of different movies. One VCR served many viewers, and so even if the overall number of VCRs in the country ware low, the number of people using the instrument was higher, especially since communal gatherings every evening were common in India at the time.
The Impact of Piracy on
Quality
We will look at how piracy impacted the quality of Hindi movies using IMDb scores of 30 movies in the 1955-2005 period.
1955 to 1985: Quality is on the rise
1985 to 2000: Piracy becomes widespread, quality declines
2000 Onwards: Anti-Piracy laws are introduced, ratings begin to increase again
When consumers stop consuming content legally, producers lose incentive to produce quality content.
We can also see how piracy affects quality by seeing how other countries' films have fared, with and without piracy.
Countries with strong laws against piracy:
UK & France - # of awards increased pre-and post piracy
Countries with high piracy:
Italy & Mexico - # of awards decreased pre- and post piracy
When producers lose incentive to produce quality content, we consume inferior content.
The Impact of Piracy on Revenue
We will look at how piracy impacted revenue of Hindi movies by examining the revenue from the sales of movies from 1995-2015 - after anti-piracy laws are put in place
Film revenue rose again in India 2000 onwards after anti-piracy laws were implemented.
Call to Action
- Buy movies legally when you have the income to do so.
- Teach children about how privacy affects them and the people who produce movies.
- Support anti-piracy laws and petitions.
- For those in the business of entertainment, make accessibility to films easy and affordable.
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