New figures show the amount of UK viewers watching content illegally has risen by over half during the coronavirus pandemic lockdown.
According to MUSO, which monitors piracy trends, in the last week of March, there was a 57 per cent increase in visits to film piracy sites compared to the last week of February.
Sites allowing viewers to illegally watch TV shows and series saw a 29 per cent increase across the same period.
- Game of Thrones was 2019’s most-torrented TV show
- The Mandalorian pirated “within three hours” of launch
MUSO’s figures show there were more than 300 million visits last moth to sites that allow content to be downloaded illegally.
“Piracy or unlicensed consumption trends are closely linked to paid-for or licensed content,” said Andy Chatterley, the chief executive of MUSO. “So just as Netflix has seen large subscriber gains, we have seen a significant spike in visits to film and TV piracy sites. Demand for content via piracy has grown exponentially.”
