Megaupload closure favours French catch-up, VOD

Pascale Paoli-Lebailly | 08-03-2012

According to French copyright authority Hadopi which fights against illicit online usage, the closure of illegal download site Megaupload has generated a 25.7% growth in catch-Up TV and pay VOD consuming in France.

Compiling online data from Médiamétrie/ Netratings about 50 legal catch-up and pay VOD platforms, as well as the still existing main free video streaming websites, Hadopi says that users have migrated from illicit platforms to legal offers available from a PC.

When the average daily audience of catch-up and VOD platforms grew up to almost 26% in the weeks of January, the average daily number of unique visitors on streaming website came down 20%, Hadopi added.

The audience growth of legal offers has been profitable to all kinds of services: catch-up TV grew 25% over the period with 220 million programmes requested in January; while pay VOD’s audience went up by 35% and content aggregators registered an 85% growth.