It's official. Marvel's "Agents of SHIELD" is the 4th most pirated TV show this 2014.
According to the site Torrent Freak, The reason for Marvel's "Agents of SHIELD" being the 4th most torrented TV show is because of ABC's recent decision to delay it's episode streams thus causing fans to pirate the episode instead of waiting for the official stream.
ABC recently stopped offering free access to its TV-shows the day after they air on television. ABC took this drastic step in the hope of getting more people to pay for their content, but this idea just backfired. TV viewers are outraged by the decision and have massively turned to pirated sources to watch their favorite shows.
ABC began delaying the availability of new episodes on Watch ABC and Hulu. Viewers without a cable subscription or Hulu Plus account will now have to wait a week before they can catch up with their favorite show online.
ABC hopes to generate extra revenue with this decision however at the same time this decision boosts the piracy percentage of their shows, and not just by a few percent.
According to the Research by Tru Optik, the number of torrent downloads for Marvel's "Agents of SHIELD" winter premiere skyrocketed. The show saw a near 600% increase in downloads compared to previous episodes.
According to Torrent Freak, the increase in illegal downloads can in part be explained by the streaming delay, as there was no significant increase in regular TV ratings or talk about Marvel's "Agents of SHIELD" on social media
A graph provided by Torrent Freak shows this download increase spike.
Marvel's "Agents of SHIELD" isn't the only show affected by the change according to Tru Optik's data. All ABC shows saw an increase of at least 50% or more in BitTorrent downloads compared to their last original episode.
According to Tru Optik's Executive Vice President Chris Medina, he expects that the piracy numbers of ABC shows will be up by millions, compared to previous years.
"Every decision a network makes has an impact on the demand and consumption of their content. The data makes it clear that tens of millions more illegal downloads of ABC shows will occur in 2014 as a result of this policy change," Medina says.
With this information it can be said that streaming delays are not in the best interests of the viewers. Although it might be a good business decision in the short-term, one has to doubt whether driving people to pirated content is a wise choice.
