Watch series and films when you want and where you want to.

f you don’t do it, at least you must have heard about it: streaming or watching series or films online. The newest season of Narcos on Netflix, movies which are still running in the theater on Popcorntime, all available on the internet whenever you want and wherever you want. Illegal or not, it happens. If you haven’t got your own Netflix account i suggest you prepare yourself for the day you will. You’re probably going to miss some sleep.

Being able to watch series and films when you want and where you want to is a trend because it slowly developed itself and i think it is still rising. At first mostly illegal but now even legally for everybody. It’s not fashion because it had a slow beginning. Fashion happens all of a sudden and everybody is in no time obsessed. It’s not a hype because it isn’t short and intens. It’s something that developed and got popular over time. Even though it might look like a hype because it’s such a  big thing today, it started slowly with a few originals. Then there were some watchers, and setters, which got a lot of followers.

This is a meso trend because it’s on a consumer level. It’s not a brand or something like that. It’s something that people feel they need to do, or have to be able to do.  It can come from two different mega trends I believe: individualisation and digitalisation. It could be individualisation because people want to decide for them selves where, when and what they want to watch. They are in control (and being in control is more of a meso trend again i believe). Digitalisation definitely has something to do with this meso trend, because you have to download the think you want to watch online.  Examples of micro trends could be Videoland, Pathe thuis, Movie Max, Putlocker, Netflix etc.

The trend is probably a still rising trend. even tho it must be somewhere near it’s top.

Let’s take Netflix as an example.

Netflix had in 2014 about 50 million users. while in 2013 it had 37 million users; an amazing increase. In 2015 there were 62.3 million users. The latest update about these numbers was at April 18th 2016. at that moment they had 81,5 million users! The USA has the most users at the moment. As you see these numbers are still rising. And rising fast. These are only the real users who are willing to pay 8 euro’s a month. with one account, 5 people can watch Netflix. And there are probably also a lot of people who managed to watch if for free in some illegal way.

Thinking that this isn’t the only site you can watch films and series online, there must be way more users than we can imagine.

Micro: Netflix.

Meso: Being able to watch series and films when you want and where you want to.

Mega: individualisation and digitalisation.

So, did you ever download a serie, show or film illegally online? And if you did, weren’t you afraid of the consequences, like a fine ticket?

By Emmie van de Bunt

JDE-ECON-1

1661186

Published by emmievandebunt

CMD'er. Internship @ The Dutch Tax Authorities

3 thoughts on “Watch series and films when you want and where you want to.”

  1. In general good article but a couple of remarks:
    – Try to avoid sentences as “I think it is still rising”. Remember that you have to fundament your thoughts and conclusions with valid arguments (e.g. statistics).
    – You need to mention your references/sources according to the APA rules (this is missing for example when you talk about Netflix). With APA you always mention the name of the author and the year of publication. Please have a look to the APA rules and add the references where needed.
    – For future articles: try to find a few more sources. The content of this article seems to come from only two sources.

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  2. I also think there are much more people that are watching series and movies online apart from Netflix. Myself included. Netflix is indeed very populair but when Popcorn time got big a little while ago, the growth of Netflix users was getting slower. We might see another service like Popcorn time in the future that leaves Netflix in the dust, who knows. I think this has to do that before Netflix, the only way to watch online material was illegal. Netflix is legal and that seems to attract way more people, which is obvious. But Popcorn time was free and had more to offer. Especially the free part had alot of people interested. I still download online for the fact that Netflix has ALOT to offer, but just not enough. Especially stuff that I like isn’t that mainstream and those kinds of series or movies don’t bother Netflix enough to buy them. Which I also understand because they won’t make enough money out of it. I also think Netflix is quite slow because when I’ve seen season 3 of a show (that I downloaded illegaly, Netflix manages to upload season 2 a couple of months later. I’m not afraid of getting a fine because that doesn’t happen in Holland. I do worry about the creators of the product. When I download a movie or serie, the creators won’t see a penny. So yeah, the only thing that holds me from downloading something is because of the support I whish to grant the creator, but nothing more than that.

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  3. So, did you ever download a serie, show or film illegally online? And if you did, weren’t you afraid of the consequences, like a fine ticket?

    I’ve downloaded music, films and series since I was twelve. The first time was with this app called Limewire. This was the first time a lot of people my age were introduced to downloading. I’m not sure if I was aware it was illegal back then.

    Now I still download a lot. But there has been a decrease. This has mainly taken place due to Netflix and Spotify. Because of these programs I do not need to download everything and can watch or listen it online for a good price. The main reason why I download is the money. I simply don’t want to pay for everything. And this is not because I don’t think the movies or music is not worth paying for but more out of a luxury. Why would you pay for something you can perfectly find for free?

    To answer your question I was never afraid of the consequences. Mainly because I didn’t think it was realistic. When I heard about the story of someone who got arrested for using Popcorn time (TorrentFreak, 2015) I was quite in shock. They couldn’t actually put you in jail for this? Well, I guess they can. But that was in Denmark a year ago. In the Netherlands the rules aren’t that strict, says Telegraaf in an article.

    To conclude I don’t think you are at risk for downloading or uploading in the Netherlands. But it’s always smart to use a VPN to keep your IP address from being tracked.

    References:

    Telegraaf. (2015). Hoe gevaarlijk is gebruik van Popcorn Time?. Retrieved on the 27th of september from:
    http://www.telegraaf.nl/digitaal/apps/24698992/__Hoe_gevaarlijk_is_gebruik_van_Popcorn_Time___.html

    TorrentFreak. (2015). Police arrest men for spreading popcorn time information. Retrieved on the 27th of september from:
    https://torrentfreak.com/police-arrest-men-for-spreading-popcorn-time-information-150819/

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