The Coalition Against Piracy (CAP), an initiative of the Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA), reports that the Indonesian government started blocking illegal sites in the middle of 2019 and by April this year the total number of sites blocked in Indonesia had topped 3,500. AVIA-CAP’s latest data also showed traffic to all pirate sites in Indonesia was down by 75% as of January this year compared to when tracking first started in September 2019. Encouragingly traffic to legitimate sites in Indonesia had also tripled over the same period.
The most recent consumer surveys commissioned to YouGov by CAP found more than half of Indonesian consumers saying that they have stopped or rarely access pirate services as a result of blocking. Perhaps more importantly, 76% of Indonesian consumers say they are accessing more legal content and pirating less, and 26% say they have subscribed to legitimate sources as a result of illegal streaming sites being blocked. Blocking as an educational tool may also be evident in 95% of Indonesian consumers agreeing that online piracy does have negative consequences – the highest in the region.
Consumer surveys taken in neighboring countries (Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines) found that blocking has been effective in those countries as well.
Read the full AVIA-CAP press release
Why it matters
According to AVIA-CAP, while piracy continues to be a major concern around the Asia Pacific region, particularly in Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines, where 61% of consumers admit to accessing pirate services in each country, site blocking, and in particular government regulatory blocking, is having a noticeable effect in stopping consumers accessing pirated content online.
“Indonesia is leading the way when it comes to regulatory site blocking in the Asia Pacific region, if not the world, and the Indonesian government is to be congratulated for the strong stance they have taken in this area. Local industry is clearly benefitting from the actions, as are consumers who are not only being directed towards legitimate content, but in being blocked from accessing pirate sites, they are also protected from the serious risks that previous CAP studies shows are inherent in accessing pirate sites,” said Matthew Cheetham, GM of CAP.
