The Grand Tour has become the most illegally downloaded television programme in history, figures suggest. Amazon paid a reported $160m (£130m) for three series of show, but figures from Muso, data analysts of the piracy market, suggest unprecedented numbers of people are avoiding paying £79 a year to sign up for Amazon’s online streaming service, Amazon Prime, and instead downloading the show illegally.
The data suggests the first episode was downloaded illegally 7.9m times, the second 6.4m times and the third 4.6m times. Amazingly, British viewers made up the largest percentage (13.7%) of the total number of illegal downloads.
The new show from the former Top Gear trio debuted on 18 November, and Amazon, which has extended its streaming service to 200 countries, has said only that “millions” of people streamed the first episode. Even the programme’s stars say they are not privy to the official viewing figures.
Muso estimated that Amazon could have lost up to £3.2m in revenue in Britain alone on episode one because of illegal downloads. Chris Elkins, the chief commercial officer at the company, said: “It is the most illegally downloaded programme ever. It is off the scale in terms of volume.”
It has overtaken every big show, including Game Of Thrones, for the totals across different platforms. We monitor thousands of campaigns and this one really stands out.”
A spokesperson for Amazon said: “The Grand Tour has become the biggest show premiere ever on Amazon Prime Video, breaking records around the world.”
Consumer Intelligence Research Partners estimated there were 63 million Amazon Prime members this July, up 19 million in a year, whereas other analysts estimate that just 2 million are in the UK. Amazon had hoped that the show would attract more subscribers to the service.
5 comments
This was seen coming from miles away. It’s like saying “Hey, did you know that humans need air to live?”
How the set up is right now I need to go onto the UK site to get Prime and none of the extras even apply to me because I live in Australia. Make this Change and ill be happy to pay the $20 a month.
dont have much choice in Canada….
why Americans can pay and watch it and Canada and Canadians are reduced to various dubious methods…
it aint fair!
No surprise at all this news like I said ages ago that this programme will be the most downloaded ever . . . . In the world
Amazon should not restrict hard. People will download and watch. Even Top Gear allowed it. This will in-turn make many into fans and later they will pay for Amazon prime service. Once you look something so much, you will pay for it. Also the Amazon brand will grow fast. If they restrict very hard from start, it will reduce the fan base because nobody would bother to see it.
Also there is a huge potential in America alone. Top Gear UK was not that much popular in America to be honest but Grand Tour will change it.