The federal government conducted its annual consumer survey on copyright infringement. The survey results revealed that there had been a year-on-year drop when it comes to the number of people engaging in online content consumption. This encompasses all five categories that the survey tracks: music, movies, TV, video games, and live sport.

The report prepared by Orima Research on behalf of the Department of Communications noted that “While the impact of COVID-19 is still being felt, the absence of major restrictions at the time of the survey means that certain trends in behaviour that may have been disrupted in 2020, may revert back to what they were in prior years in the 2021 results.”

“On the other hand, it is also possible that in 2020 new patterns of behaviour were established that may persist into 2021 and beyond.”

The survey was based on the participants’ behaviour in the prior three months. 71% of the survey respondents have consumed online media from one of the categories mentioned above. This figure was down by four percentage points compared to the 2020 survey.

The survey also revealed that 69% of the participants who consumed content only in non-infringing ways was up by three percentage points from the prior year. On the other hand, the survey participants who consumed content in ways that are likely to be unlawful dropped by four percentage points to 30%.

It is worth noting that the methodology implemented for the study changed significantly in 2020. In this case, the lawfulness of online content consumption was no longer based on self-assessment. Instead, this was already pre-classified as likely to be lawful or otherwise. This made the comparison of the current survey results to the 2015-2019 results technically challenging.

Nevertheless, compared to the previous year, the consumption classified as likely to have involved infringing copyright was either steady or decreased. In this case, the two major changes in this front were illicitly accessing music and live sports. The former was down by six percentage points while the latter was down by seven percentage points. 

Meanwhile, Netflix and YouTube remained the go-to legal services for movies and films. Subsequently, Google Play and Apple are still the major sources for video game content. However, when it comes to the most famous music service, YouTube and Spotify are still the leaders.

In terms of live sports, Foxtel dominated. Its Kayo Sports service took the number one spot for the first time. The survey revealed that 25% of those who watched sports online used Kayo. This was followed by Foxtel’s Go and Now services at 24%.