14 DAY TRIAL // According to a new study from the European Commission, about 70 percent of all Europeans regularly download or stream movies for free mainly because of the high cost of legal alternatives, such as movie tickets and DVDs.
The report on the film viewing habits of Europeans was released earlier this week and it most certainly will give Hollywood studio chiefs a headache.
The conclusion was reached after surveying 4,608 respondents between the ages of 4 and 50 from ten countries in Europe, including France, Germany and the United Kingdom.
The report titled “A profile of current and future audiovisual audience” concluded that up to 97 percent of all Europeans enjoy watching movies, but the majority chooses not to pay for this.
“Nearly 70 percent of Europeans download or stream films for free, whether legally or illegally,” the report reads, painting a pretty clear picture of the watching habits on the old continent.
The reasons for this behavior are also listed and perhaps Hollywood should take note on this. Most individuals say the expensive legal options are to blame for their penchant for downloading movies, suggesting that most of the films they watch are pirated.
The second most used reason is that some films are interesting, but not worth paying for at the cinema. The fact that many movies have such delayed premieres in Europe also serves as a reason, as well as the fact that there are barely any legal alternatives. Netflix, for instance, still has a long way to go before it reaches a lot of European nations and the same can be said for other similar services that many people would be willing to pay for.
The European Commission doesn’t really seem surprised by the results. “While the public takes a lot of interest in films as a whole, the nearest cinema if often some distance from them and the choice of screen is frequently limited,” the file reads.
Furthermore, it suggests that the European film industry can increase revenues by exploiting different types of online platforms to increase the availability of films in order to reach new audiences.