Last week, Swedish independent analysis and consultancy firm Mediavision published some fresh figures about piracy in the Nordic countries. The number of users in the region accessing pirated content keeps on growing, hitting 5 million in 2024, thus marking an increase of 400,000 “new pirates” in comparison with last year’s figures.

“Piracy has been a challenge for the Nordic media market for many years,” states Mediavision’s official press release. “Despite efforts by several players to limit piracy, illegal consumption of films, series and live sports is growing in most Nordic markets. An increasing number of households also pay for illegal TV services, so-called illegal IPTV [Internet Protocol television].

“Today, 25% of all 15- to 74-year-olds in the Nordics say they have downloaded or illegally streamed films, series or live sports in the last month. In addition, an increasing number of households choose to subscribe to illegal TV services, or illegal IPTV. There are currently around 1.3 million households in the Nordics that pay to gain illegal access to thousands of TV and streaming services this way. That is an increase of 16% compared to last year.”

“Piracy is still a problem in the Nordics. Financial pressure on households combined with generally increasing prices for legal alternatives are factors that have likely contributed to this growth,” explains Natalia Borelius, analyst at Mediavision. 

Speaking to Cineuropa, Borelius reveals that the data were collected through Mediavision’s own online tracking system, which covers general media behaviours. On this occasion, a total of 4,700 respondents aged 15-74 from Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland were tracked over the course of March. To date, Sweden is the country that has been recording the highest piracy rates – and this has historically been the case – whilst Finland is the most “lawful” of the four surveyed countries.