Movie piracy and displaced sales in Europe: Evidence from six countries

Benedikt Herz and Kamil Kiljański

Information Economics and Policy, 2018, vol. 43, issue C, 12-22

Abstract: This paper presents estimates of lost movie sales due to unpaid movie consumption. We are the first to provide estimates that are representative of the internet-using population and cover multiple countries. Based on an online questionnaire with almost 30,000 respondents, we document that one unpaid (first) viewing of a movie displaces about 0.37 units of paid viewings. Using a back-of-the-envelope calculation, we show that this implies that unpaid movie viewings reduced movie sales in Europe by about 4.4% during the sample period. Lost sales differ substantially by country: they are in the range of 1.65% for Germany and 10.4% for Spain. We also document that 94% of lost sales are due to unpaid viewings by a small group of only 20% of consumers. This implies that well targeted policies have the most potential to prevent damages of movie piracy.

Keywords: Movie piracy; Displaced sales; Copyright; File-sharing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:iepoli:v:43:y:2018:i:c:p:12-22

DOI: 10.1016/j.infoecopol.2018.02.001

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