How Netflix Exploits Piracy

September 16, 2013 in Daily Bulletin

Netflix is thought to be the white knight to the evils of piracy – a way for consumers to pay for quality entertainment without having to pirate it. Yet Netflix also benefits from piracy writes Ernesto:

  • When deciding which media to acquire the rights for, Netflix looks at the most popular files on illegal downloading sites.
  • When it launched in the Netherlands, for example, Netflix noted that Prison Break was a frequently downloaded show in the country and acquired the rights to stream the content in the Netherlands.
  • While Netflix might utilize pirate sites, it notes that these moves ultimately help it to combat piracy. Traffic to BitTorrent – a popular system to acquire pirate media – fell by 50% after Netflix launched in Canada.

Read more about why people might choose to upgrade from BitTorrent to Netflix, how BitTorrent creates demand for entertainment, and more over here.

Source: TorrentFreak