Sixty-nine per cent of millennials use at least on method of piracy, according to the latest Anatomy Media research.
The company’s 2016 ‘Millennials at the Gate’ report, which provides an in-depth look at the streaming, ad blocking and piracy behaviors of young (18-24) adults, also found that two in three use ad blocking software.
Based on a comprehensive survey of over 2,500 millennials, the report stated that 61 per cent use a shared password for video services.
“It’s important for publishers to understand the behaviour of this population because this cohort forms the cutting edge of the change that is disrupting their business models,” said Gabriella Mirabelli, CEO, Anatomy
“As this populations ages they will not adopt regressive technology, but rather their behaviours will migrate up and down the demographic spectrum. Looking at this group’s behaviors allows video publishers to look into the future in order to strategise and plan how to meet the viewership challenges – and potential revenue loss – they will be facing.”
In practical terms, two in three millennials installing ad-blocking software means a whopping 66 per cent of ad revenue is not being captured, and this should be of major concern to industry figures.
The report indicated that millennials generally believe that piracy is acceptable. A surprising 24 per cent of those surveyed believe that both downloading and streaming piracy are legal.
Sixty-one per cent of millennials are sharing passwords for video services, and the research found that, despite a general industry belief that living in a childhood home is correlated to password sharing, the behaviour continues even when the individual no longer shares a physical home with their parent.
While streaming services enforce simultaneous stream policies, they do not appear to be tracking unique users and are thus under-reporting unique users and missing out on a large amount of subscription revenue.
