Creative Coalition Chair Christine Payne welcomes new report highlighting fantastic range of content available from legal online platforms
Almost 90% of the most popular and highest quality film and television content is now available across legal digital platforms, according to a new report compiled by KPMG and published today.
The report, UK availability of Film and TV Titles in the Digital Age, examines the UK availability of the most popular and critically acclaimed film and TV titles on 27 legal digital streaming and download services as of December 2013. According to KPMG’s primary research, 86% of the most popular and highest quality films titles were available through an online video on demand service.
Other key findings include:
100% of the 2012 UK top 100 box office hits are offered on at least one of the services;
96% of the UK all time box office hits are offered on at least one of the services;
90% of independent films were available on at least one service;
75% of top UK 100 TV programmes were also available one at least on service.
It is widely acknowledged that offering high quality legal sources of digital content is an important element of tackling online copyright infringement. The report’s findings demonstrate that the film and television industries are embracing to consumer demands in the digital world.
This is a fast developing market that has seen significant growth in the UK in recent years. Since the Coalition Government took office in 2010, several new legal services including Netflix and Amazon Instant Prime have launched joining a wide array of existing legal sources of content.
The findings also mirror similar success in the music and publishing sectors where consumers can access more than 20 million individual music tracks and more than 2 million e-books from legal platforms.
Today’s report follows the launch of Creative Content UK in the summer, a ground-breaking new partnership that will boost consumer awareness of the wide array of legitimate online content services and help reduce online copyright infringement. This initiative will include a major multi-media education awareness campaign, led by content creators and part-funded by government, that aims to create wider appreciation of the value and benefits of entertainment content and copyright.
Today’s report has been welcomed by the Government and senior figures from across the UK’s creative industries, highlighting its importance in the context of the debate around online copyright infringement.
Culture Secretary Sajid Javid said:
“The digital revolution means the world’s best creative content – from box office films to some of the UK’s best TV – is available online, and can be accessed through on demand and mobile devices. With our nationwide rollout of superfast broadband – which aims to cover 95% of the country by 2017 – it’s making possible for even more people to download or stream online content every day.
“This means there’s never been a better time to watch the latest blockbuster on your internet-enabled TV or catch up on an episode of your favourite TV drama on your mobile on the way to work. It also shows there is no reason for downloading pirated material.”
Christine Payne, Chair of the Creative Coalition and General Secretary of Equity, said:
“This report demonstrates that the film and television sectors are meeting consumer demand for digital content via safe, legal sources. Services have been transformed in only the last five years. It is vital that we do everything possible to encourage consumers to use these legitimate platforms to access content instead of pirate websites that steal the content and pay nothing back to the army of people who create them.”
John McVay, Chief Executive of Pact, said:
“There has been a huge transformation in the digital availability of quality film and TV content on offer in the UK in recent years. Today’s report highlights just how much progress we have made as an industry. However, these legal services still have to compete with criminal websites making the same content available for free and contributing nothing to the legitimate creative economy. Successfully tackling piracy remains a critical part of helping these legitimate platforms grow.”