Jen Brea tweets about U.K. Unrest campaign

https://twitter.com/user/status/978665556034379777

 

Holy crap! That's appalling.

 

@JenB - this is awful. How about a UK-specific fundraising drive for outreach?

 

Too bad that none of us saw this sooner. We could have reported to Jen and she could have had it taken down then. It has just been taken down so I am thinking she just saw this.

 

This is bizarre - I wonder who the individual / group of people referred to are?

 

Whilst fully understanding the annoyance that this must cause, I always have difficulty in understanding calculations of this nature.

There is no way of knowing how many people who were willing to watch the film for free would have been willing to pay to watch it.

It may be that the film has reached a wider audience than it would otherwise have done. I don't advocate piracy, I just suspect the calculations.

And no. I have not watched a pirated version.

 

I suspect it's a rather niche film for a general audience to stumble across, let alone watch on YouTube for 90 minutes. That suggests to me that it was people with an interest in ME who watched it, for the most part, and those are also the people who would've paid if they had no other choice.

That said, YouTube views don't necessarily represent unique viewers either. So it is impossible to put a number on.

 

I think it's fair to say people with an interest in ME would have watched it, however to suggest all of those would have paid to watch it is a big stretch.

Plenty of people watch pirated movies all the time, there is no way all of these people would pay to watch the same movies if they didn't have access to the pirated version.

 

I'm only guessing here, but they probably had to make a choice on what campaigns to cut short not realizing they had money taken from them in this pirated youtube post.

 

I didn't say they all would. But a niche film also isn't the same as a throwaway blockbuster movie. Most (or many) people didn't just stumble upon Unrest and watch it.

They sought it out. They probably wanted to watch it. Probably enough to fork out for it if they had no choice. People interested in ME tend to be very interested...

 

I watch documentaries on youtube all the time. Now, I do believe they have been out for some time and those that have the license are not impacted as may be the case with 'Unrest'. I did pay $4.99 for the rental on Vimeo and I thought that was a bargain. My friend saw it on iTunes for 99 cents.

 

Looking at Twitter, it seems Jen is basing her assumptions on the difference between UK and US TVOD monies.

( Tranactional video on demand, I think)

It seems they have equal figures for everything apart from TVOD.
(This is surprising in itself, and would suggest UK is a lot more tuned in than US.)

I don't know how popular VOD is in UK vs US though.

 

The US had 'Unrest' on PBS for free in early January. But I watched it on Vimeo prior to its airing as I wanted to see it ASAP. It was purchased by Independent Lens but it still allows Jen to distribute through video platforms. This is probably why US campaign is continuing.

 

I can't imagine anyone uninterested would have.

 

I am sure there are movie buffs who would watch anything for free