Movie industry out of options to tackle pirates

[Len]

New Zealand's film industry is calling for help to combat piracy as it warns "it's hard to compete with free".

The NZ Motion Picture Distributors' Association reported box office takings of $189.67 million in 2017, down from $206.6m in 2016 – when Hunt for the Wilderpeople set records.

The biggest film of the year was Thor:Ragnarok, which took $7m. That was followed by Beauty and the Beast and Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

"Given the runaway success of Hunt for the Wilderpeople in 2016 we were not at all surprised to see a return to normality in the 2017 box office here," association chair Peter Garner said.

"We are pleased that once again consumers are being provided with a wide variety of movie choices and genres. New Zealand replicated the international success of a number of films with eight out of the top ten movies breaking $5 million in box office revenues."

But association managing director Matthew Cheetham said the industry still had a big problem with piracy.

"When we have the illegal file-sharing site the Pirate Bay as New Zealand's 19th most popular site in New Zealand, it is clear that legitimate movie and TV distribution channels face challenges."

The only way to combat that would be for the government to introduce the ability for rights-holders to block sites as part of its review of the Copyright Act. Other countries, including Australia, have taken this step.

"It's not getting any better," he said. It was hard to put a figure on the potential cost to the industry.

Cheetham said there was little rights-holders could do when their copyrights were infringed at the moment. Civil and criminal action had been taken against Pirate Bay and its owners found liable but the site continued to operate.

Another problem was Kodi boxes, or Android streaming media players, which cost about $70 and give access to software that directs users to foreign streams of television and movies. Sky last year took legal action against Hamilton entrepreneur Krish Reddy and Christchurch's Fibre TV NZ.

"There's nothing we can do in New Zealand apart from site blocking," Cheetham said.

He said consumer tastes had changed and there was a lot of competition in the marketplace. But people still wanted to watch movies and television. Services such as Netflix and Lightbox continued to be popular.

"It's been called the golden age of television and a lot of premium movies have been released in the last 12 or 18 months. Content providers and distributors have really upped their game in the last five or 10 years to meet what people want but it's very difficult to compete with free."

Cheetham said the industry was also providing solid economic benefits for the country.

Last year's Film Commission report found 14,000 people working in the industry in 2015 and median earnings in the industry were growing faster than the average for the New Zealand economy.

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