Streaming was meant to fix everything. Instead it pushed everyone back to piracy.

Why piracy is surging again in the age of streaming

Convenience outpoints ownership

Early streaming promised a simple bargain: pay a small monthly fee and own access to a huge library without physical media, without scheduling and without the packages and hidden fees of cable. That bargain has shifted into a ledger of restrictions. Region locks, exclusive windows and tiered subscription rules mean a paid customer may discover content is unavailable for their account, region or device at the exact moment they want to watch.

Sports rights illustrate the frustration in sharp relief. A single basketball fan can face multiple subscriptions to catch games played in their own city. When convenience disappears, the service that offers immediate access becomes more valuable than a legal purchase. This is the service failure Gabe Newell described years ago: “if the lawful option fails the customer, the pirate wins on user experience”.

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Fragmentation turns one library into many

Streaming’s early appeal was consolidation. That era has ended as every studio and rights holder created separate apps. The result is multiple partial libraries each charging monthly fees. Consumers who previously paid one low price now face a growing monthly sum to replicate the variety that once sat inside one app.

Streaming is reverting toward the bundling problem that cable created. Pricing has risen while the promise of choice has narrowed because much content now sits behind exclusive doors. For viewers who work across time zones, who travel or who live in smaller markets, exclusivity means either paying more or missing content entirely. Piracy thrives where availability is inconsistent and when a single search could locate a program that would otherwise require multiple subscriptions.

Price pressure and perceived value

Streaming services have repeatedly raised prices while simultaneously shifting large parts of their catalog toward in-house productions. The economics of licensing are such that maintaining all legacy titles would be costly.

Platforms therefore pivot to producing originals whose cost to the consumer is less obvious than a rights fee. This creates two reactions from viewers. First, some feel they are paying more to receive less of the cultural catalogue they actually care about. Second, casual consumption habits are encouraged, which reduces sensitivity to quality and heightens tolerance for price increases.

A viewer who spends little attention on content will not fight subscription churn until the total monthly bill becomes burdensome. When the total of multiple subscriptions equals or exceeds former cable costs, many consumers evaluate piracy as the lower-friction option.

The second screen era and falling attention

Streaming platforms increasingly design content for an environment where attention is split. Writers and executives receive notes to ensure narratives work when viewers are scrolling or cooking. That approach changes storytelling and weakens the incentive to produce demanding, richly textured dramas intended for full attention.

When audiences are trained to consume with a second screen, they care less about curated quality and more about immediate access and novelty. This contributes to a culture where volume becomes the metric for value.

Hundreds of new titles per year create a quantity illusion that masks lower average quality. Viewers responding to this environment are more likely to tolerate a legal paywall breach if piracy delivers the specific title they want with minimal friction.

Sports and live events expose the system’s weakness

Pay-per-view and sports rights have always presented thorny issues, and streaming has amplified those problems. Promoters and rights holders sometimes respond with exclusive deals that place marquee events behind a single platform.

Fans who once paid for individual matches now face a subscription calculus that may cost more overall and offer less certainty. When piracy reliably streams a live match in high definition, for free, a significant share of viewers switch.

Rights holders have experimented with solutions that reduce piracy, for example offering lower-cost live access through their own platforms. That tactic works when the offering is simple, global and reliable. Where it remains complex and fragmented, piracy fills the convenience gap.

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Technology lowers the technical barrier

High-speed broadband, affordable smart televisions, mobile devices and improved streaming protocols have reduced the technical barrier to piracy. Websites that aggregate streams and peer-to-peer networks supply content that is accessible without special knowledge.

Where downloading a file once required complex steps, today a user can click a link and watch within seconds. This refinement in user experience is critical. Legal services are judged by how smoothly they deliver an experience. When piracy sites match or exceed that level of ease, many consumers make a pragmatic choice.

The music industry as a precedent

The music business suffered a piracy wave that eased only when streaming services provided a better experience than piracy. Unified catalogues with consistent licensing across platforms removed the principal service failure. The music lesson suggests an answer: aggregation and universal access reduce illegal distribution.

Music streaming succeeded because subscribers could reasonably expect the song they wanted on any platform with no exclusivity. Applying the same logic to visual media would require unprecedented cooperation between studios, platforms and rights holders, which is politically and commercially difficult. For streaming to reclaim ground from piracy, the industry will need to accept some forms of aggregation or regional pricing that reduce friction.

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Economic and creative consequences

Piracy’s growth produces direct revenue loss for rights holders and creates uncertainty for creators. When income is unpredictable, budgets shrink, and risk-averse commissioning increases. The long tail of creative production thins, with fewer mid-budget projects that once allowed writers, directors and actors to experiment.

At the same time, piracy is not free of winners. Audiences who otherwise would not have seen a film can become fans, building word-of-mouth that sometimes translates to paid opportunities for creators in other markets. That paradox complicates enforcement strategies that rely on strict takedowns and heavy-handed legal action.

Enforcement, regulation and user experience

Policing piracy will remain part of the response but will not eradicate demand. Takedowns, legal action and domain seizures can disrupt supply temporarily. The most durable solutions combine enforcement with improving legal alternatives.

Global windows, fair pricing for smaller markets and simpler bundling are practical directions. Advertising supported tiers have a role where viewers are unwilling or unable to pay full price. Platforms that prioritise accessibility and straightforward purchasing are more likely to convert borderline pirates into customers. Consumer respect emerges from predictable access at a price that aligns with local incomes and viewing habits.

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The outlook for streaming

Streaming is at a crossroads. If the industry continues to fragment rights, raise prices and design content for distracted audiences, piracy will continue to increase as a rational response to an inferior service. If platforms move toward aggregation, fair regional pricing and improved discoverability, the convenience advantage that piracy enjoys will shrink.

Technology will always create opportunities for unauthorised distribution, yet the decisive factor is the legal service’s ability to meet viewer expectations for availability, simplicity and value. For streaming to reclaim public trust, the sector must relearn the lesson that meeting the customer’s needs is the most effective deterrent to piracy.

The debate is therefore not solely legal. It is a conversation about service design, pricing, content strategy and global fairness. Policy makers, industry executives and creators will need to accept that the consumer’s experience determines where audiences spend their attention and their money. Where that experience fails, piracy will remain the symptom and the alternative many viewers find reasonable.

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