49% of Pinoys view piracy streaming sites

Third in East Asia

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines placed third among East and Southeast Asian economies in terms of use of piracy streaming sites, according to a survey commissioned by a regional industry watchdog.

Asia Video Industry Association’s Coalition Against Piracy general manager Neil Gane, in a roundtable discussion organized by Stratbase Albert del Rosario Institute, said the survey conducted by international research and data analytics group YouGov in September showed 49 percent of the 1,098 respondents in the Philippines admitted to having accessed piracy streaming sites.

This placed the Philippines behind Thailand which had 53 percent and Vietnam with 50 percent.

Those with lower percentage of consumers that used streaming piracy sites are Hong Kong (48 percent), Taiwan (33 percent); Indonesia (28 percent), Malaysia (22 percent), and Singapore (17 percent).

The survey also showed that 47 percent of consumers in the Philippines who accessed piracy sites cancelled their subscriptions to both local and international content services.

Citing a report of Media Partners Asia, Gane said that while subscription video on demand (SVOD) is projected to reach $250 million in the country this year, the industry is also seen to lose about $120 million to piracy.

“Piracy is depriving SVOD of $120 million in revenue per annum, more than 90 percent of the current legal opportunity,” he said.

Even as the Philippines ranks high in use of piracy streaming sites, he said respondents believe online piracy have negative consequences for the country.

The survey showed 50 percent of respondents believe online piracy results in people working in the creative industry losing their jobs and 55 percent see online piracy resulting in people making profits from content they don’t own.

About 49 percent of the respondents said online piracy increases the risk of malware infections on computers and devices.

Around 44 percent said they believe online pirates do not pay taxes.

Meanwhile, nine percent were of the view online piracy would not lead to detrimental effects to the country.

To combat piracy, 53 percent of online Filipino consumers said the government should have a law ordering internet service providers (ISPs) to block pirated websites.

Last year, the Online Infringement Act bill seeking to enable the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines through the National Telecommunications Commission to cancel the licenses of ISPs that allow websites to infringe or facilitate copyright infringement, was filed at the Senate.

Gane said blocking sites is effective and used by 45 countries around the world.

He said among those using this as a tool are Indonesia and Malaysia which both saw a significant drop in video piracy over the past year.