NZ Cinema Census: 51% download movies, 87% don’t pay

Flicks has just carried out its first annual NZ Cinema Census, canvassing the views of 4000 of the movie site’s users (with a 50-50 male-female split and a skew to 26-35 year-olds).

The headline stat is that 51% regularly download movies, but 87% don’t pay (see charts below).

Tellingly, 40% felt no guilt about illegal downloads, while a further 40% said they only felt "a bit bad" - likely a reflection of the fact that most think studios are simply ignoring New Zealand as a small market, failing to release some films or TV shows here in timely fashion - or at all - and generally giving commercial services like iTunes only tepid support. And if the studios and distributors don't care about us, we don't care about them.

"It's a real pickle isn't it?,” Flicks boss Paul Scantelbury told NBR.

 “As our results show, some New Zealanders do it illegally. But there is no good provider of a legal service. So what's the option for people wanting movies online?"

Studios build hype in the US - seen around the world - then often frustrate pent-up expectation with a region-by-region release schedule; a frequent theme of user comments on Flicks. And of course if a movie - or, more often, a TV series - is not released in New Zealand at all, it makes a mockery of the "lost sales" argument.

Survey snapshot (click to zoom):

For any good citizen – such as myself – who does pay for movies, it’s often slim pickings on the NZ versions of iTunes and Xbox Live, and TiVo’s Caspa service – and Sky TV is only just starting to dribble content onto iSky.

In New Zealand for the Apple TV version 2.0 launch, a rep for the company told me it didn’t take any moral view on download. Instead, it just wanted to offer the most user-friendly service possible.

And, of course, as many new releases and library titles as possible (also crucial for the NZ market, but AWOL for Xbox Live and iTunes: unmetered data).

Studios know, in their hearts, all  home movie viewing will ultimately be by download, and that if they go to war with their customers now, it can only hurt their long term prospects.

But short-term, they’ve got a greedy eye on (ever decreasing) DVD revenue, pay TV rights (insanely complicated schedules can see a film pulled from in-store rental during its window on Sky TV) and broadcast TV deals.

The new file sharing law will help prop up their old business model, for a bit (if complicating life for employers). We’ve had enough stick. Now give the law abiding citizens some carrots.

Checkout the full Cinema Census here.