Back in the day it was common practice to resort to pirating your favourite shows or music when you wanted to have them. Cable didn’t really offer you the option of choosing what to consume and when, and the same was the problem with the radio. Then came sites like Pirate Bay, which offered you all kinds of content…with the possibility of downloading a few viruses along them.
Netflix enters the game
Initially, Netflix was just another film rental service, with brick and mortar stores where you would go to choose your DVDs but with a new innovation they became THE streaming service for a long time.
They created a platform where you could stream just about any show that came to your mind, whenever you wanted, without ads and the option to download and watch offline. It was an innovation that drew in many, forming a virtual monopoly in a sector where Netflix already didn’t have competition to begin with.
Netflix distinguished itself from cable operators by being pro-consumer, just like Powerbet Casino or FafPirate Casino. They made the platform extremely affordable, and encouraged password-sharing, as it was common for multiple people to use the same account from different places, be that the college kid who left home and watching on campus, or your grandma who just learned how to use it.
The beginning of the end
During the COVID crisis, naturally, people were looking for entertainment options where they didn’t need to leave the comfort and safety of their homes and online streaming services were an obvious solution.
Soon, everyone wanted in on the revenue this could generate and platforms like Disney Plus and HBO GO started to appear. This was all fine and good until the market got so saturated that you needed 3 or 4 services just to have a decent catalogue.
With the appearance of more production companies, they started to pull their shows from other’s catalogues. This is never a problem at Powerbet Casino and FatPirate Casino as you will always find your favourite games there.
These streaming platforms adapted more and more aggressive approaches when it came to revenue generation, thus creating a more and more hostile environment for users. Netflix famously took steps to prohibit password sharing, something that they encouraged up to this point. Several platforms implemented paid subscriptions that still involved ads.
They hiked up prices without giving anything in return to their customers and made steps to reduce costs as much as possible, which more often than not made their quality worse.
The return to the high seas
As the war between streaming platforms progressed, people have found their way back to piracy. These new sites became way more sophisticated than the pages back when you had to fight with 80 pop-up ads and Stacy, who was 5 kilometres from you.
The tastefully made sites included everything a traditional streaming platform had, a catalogue with thousands and thousands of options, user-friendly interface, customer service and above anything else, it was free. These qualities are all present at PowerBet Casino and FatPirate Casino, on top of it all, they are completely legal and legitimate.
These sites were mostly designed by the people who were dissatisfied with the dwindling advantages of online streaming services.
From being at an all-time-low at the beginning of the 2020’s, pirating content skyrocketed in 5 years. All because users were fed-up by companies who were more preoccupied with profit and forgot to offer anything valuable to their paying users.
Not all is lost for the giants
Even with the new trend towards pirating content, most people report using at least one streaming service alongside illegally downloading content. This is obviously not ideal for these companies as people can find free alternatives when their shows don’t exist in their selection.
What many hope is that this shift in behaviour will encourage paid-for sites to return to a more customer-oriented approach and offer prices or a selection that is more oriented towards the demands of their users.
It is also worth mentioning that the return to piracy didn’t cause major losses for streaming services, it merely created a competition that many think was needed to make them listen to their customers.
How the tables have turned
A few years ago, providers like Netflix or HBO rightfully thought that online piracy is virtually dead, because it was. Everything pointed to the fact that customers were willing to pay a monthly or yearly subscription in order to enjoy their chosen form of entertainment.
In return they would get a secure platform and a catalogue that was both vast and constantly updating according to their preferences.
When things changed, people have found a way to access their shows or movies without the need for a transaction, thus bringing back piracy.
