Downloading or streaming has become the norm for many Irish adults, as it seems that at least one in five people are getting their media online illegally.
According to the latest figures, which were produced by Ignite Research on behalf of communications group Core Media, 36,806 Irish adults illegally download media content every day, be it music, tv shows or films.
The research, which was conducted in November and December of 2014, looked at the behaviour of 1,000 Irish adults, and found that some sections of the population were more likely to download than others, but that it was still something that a large amount of people partake in.
The stats showed that one in three people aged between 15 and 24 had downloaded illegally in the last 12 months, while that figure moves to one in four adults for the demographic aged between 25 to 34. Those aged 55 years or more are not squeaky clean either, as one in 20 have admitted to downloading something illegally online in the last year.
Speaking to The Irish Times, director of Ignite Research Conor Hughes said that people had changed their attitudes towards downloading in recent years. While many people believed that it used to be about music only, the increasing speed and availability of broadband has meant that it's becoming more universal. For most people downloading online, the main weapon of choice is a torrent: "Forty per cent of our 'illegal downloaders' are using torrent sites and other peer to peer networks to obtain television programmes. The two key reasons for this are still the fact that it is free and the easy availability of such content".
Homegrown programmes such as Love/Hate still rank behind popular American TV shows such as Game of Thrones when it comes to what people are looking for, but despite the fact that there were now attractive legal means for accessing content online, such as Netflix, many people reported that they were now downloading more often than before: "As many as 59 per cent of adults interviewed said their downloading behaviour had not changed in the past year , while 12 per cent reported downloading more content illegally than previously."
A report by Grant Thornton on the estimated cost of illegal downloading to the Irish economy (from 2013) stated that it was costing the economy in the region of €269 million per year. That same report also predicted that as a result of online downloading, "by 2015 the cumulative job losses in the creative industries sector in Ireland could be as high as 7,376 with an estimated loss to the Exchequer of €70.7 m in tax (see the Figure 6.6 below)".
Via The Irish Times