Disney and Piracy Research

Marketing & Distribution



Research Question 1: Cross-media convergence & the Avengers Franchise (Disney)

• Comics

- promotes films among comic book readers and vice versa
- gives more information about characters
- engaging for readers as they compare to comic to movie or watch with upcoming movie measuring how expectation have been met
- Comixology (the platfrom for digital comic) release comics of upcoming movies which helps to create hype
- Marvel launched a new series of comics called MARVEL NOW! to help sustain readers interests

• TV

- tie-into the films, for example, Agent of Shields give more information about the marvel universe satisfying fans by filling the gaps of knowledge 

- give more backstory to characters such as the mini-series Marvel Agent Carter following Captain America's love interest-  this show was used to maintain the interest of audience while Agent of Shields took a filming break 

- Marvel's Defender is a spin-off of the shows about the individual characters in that show. 

- TV Shows helps broaden the audience. As the content contains adult themes and is more graphic it is targeted towards them. 

Research Question 2: Piracy 

Piracy is the unauthorised use of another’s work.

-       monthly cable-TV subscription didn’t provide all the content audiences wanted this contributed to people turning to illegal websites which had a range of content available to watch this contributed to the increase trend of piracy

-       Streaming technology allowed easy access to TV shows, movies and music reducing piracy.  Legal actions of watching content became easier than illegal actions (bugs and viruses and lowe-quality)

-       Piracy still remains as some people prefer not to pay for sreaming services or pay-per-view services such as Google Play

Research Question 3: Piracy in Lockdown (2020)

-       29% increase of using piracy sites to illegal watch movie & TV shows

-       300milion visit piracy sites allowing illegal downloading of movies & TV shows

-       increase watching comedy shows by 40% and family-friendly shows by 36% - on sky cinema channel 48% increase

-       increase downloading of TV series on sky with a total of 123 million between march-april 2020

-       50million views on entertainment apps such as youtube and netflix

-       Various genres of TV shows are being watched including comedy, premium dramas and escapist (binge-worthy)

-       A minimum of 5 hours a  week is spent watching

Research Question 4: Piracy in NZ

-       80% use legal streaming sutes because contents are available at reasonable prices. Also, Netflix use to have global mode meaning the shows and movies were exactly like those in America

-       for 3% of 1000 surveyed the main source of content is pirate sites

-       piracy sites and ‘kodi’ boxes allow (live) sports piracy. Kodi is an open-source media player software application that is free.