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Impacts of illegal downloading of wrestling


kieranjennings

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Would TNA’s attempt at running weekly PPV’s been a success if it had happened in the early 90’s when it wasn’t possible to get so much content for free?

No, because WWF ran Survivor Series and Tuesday in Texas close together and realised people wont pay for two on the trot in significant numbers.

 

The thing with streaming is, WrestleMania shows if a show is worth buying, people will buy it. Nobody would have bought Battleground. People would rather have done without than pay for it. Illegal streaming makes little difference. If I wanted to see wrestling for free I'd get a mate to tape it and go to bed earlier like I did in the 90s. Blaming streaming for the buyrates being down is a total cop out.

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How much impact downloading has on anything is really muddy, near-unprovable territory, but the common theory that matches my experience is that the vast majority of people who illegally download stuff wouldn't have bothered paying for it if they couldn't get it for free. Seeing it in terms of lost potential money would thus be a massive fallacy. Ian covered the rest.

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Piracy is an excuse wheeled out all the time by those affected by it, but piracy only comes about when consumers think they’re getting a crap deal. Look at the rise in popularity of services like iTunes, Spotify and Netflix. They charge, but they charge fair prices and people are happy to pay those prices. I think iTunes was even condemned when it first launched, with pundits saying it would fail as people would seek music from “alternative” sources for free.

 

Yes, there will always be dicks who try and root out a freebie, but if you offer your product at a fair price then more people will be inclined to go, “That’s not so bad. I can buy that through my PayPal account.”

 

Piracy isn’t a new thing. To then blame it for declined PPV numbers is just na

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Vince McMahon is the first to tell his investors that the reason for a PPV tanking is due to the company not giving the people what they want. He's been doing the promoting thing for a while and he knows the script. If people are into it, they'll buy it.

 

Also, TNA are rotten at selling anything to their solid TV audience. There would be more of a case here if people watching their TV were buying anything TNA is selling, but from their live shows to their merch, it's all pretty unimpressive.

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How much impact downloading has on anything is really muddy, near-unprovable territory, but the common theory that matches my experience is that the vast majority of people who illegally download stuff wouldn't have bothered paying for it if they couldn't get it for free. Seeing it in terms of lost potential money would thus be a massive fallacy. Ian covered the rest.

 

How do you measure this? Both in terms of the common theory and your anecdotal experience? From people saying that to you? It's a common excuse that people throw out to justify piracy, but I don't really think it completely stands up.

 

 

Piracy is an excuse wheeled out all the time by those affected by it, but piracy only comes about when consumers think they
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I personally don't agree with illegally downloading and don't do it myself but with that said I don't pay to watch WWE PPV's either...I don't bother with either because I don't find WWE all that entertaining at the moment so don't waste energy illegally downloading or money to watch it on Box Office. If WWE produced a more entertaining product maybe more or a lot more people would be willing to part with their money to watch the PPV, I know I would. On a slightly different note I think WWE should go to more lengths to stop PPV's being uploaded to youtube a few days after. I understand when people say why should I pay when I can get something for free, WWE should cut off all ways of getting their PPV's for free. Even if it pushes their buyrates up slightly its better than nothing and it doesn't harm anything on their side.

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You seem to be confused here. On one hand you're saying it's an excuse and not to blame, and on the other hand you saying that it does affect businesses, and is used by consumers as an alternative to purchasing.

 

I don't think you even know what your argument is.

Well of course it affects business. One pirate stream is one lost sale to the vendor. But piracy can be reduced by offering your product at a fair price, and my gripe is piracy then gets wheeled out as the generic response to poor performance and vendor’s crank up prices to cover their “losses” instead of looking at what they’re putting out and why their content is getting pirated.

 

I wouldn’t pay

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