Never thought this would happen but increasingly people have started to pay for Netflix subscriptions so they can stream movies on demand rather than spend time and bandwidth trying to download them. In the US, Netflix nearly doubled the number of new subscribers in the first quarter of 2010. The number sky rocketed from 1.7 to 3.3. million.
Netflix now has 22.8 million paid subscribers in the US, which generates a total revenue of $706 million in the first quarter itself in this year, effectively making it larger than any cable company in the US. Due to all the positive growth around Netflix, many have chosen to pay for Netflix rather than download pirated movies with the risk of being caught.
Netflix is posing some serious competition to torrent movie sites. Analysts say that the only way to decrease piracy is to compete with it and offer products that are superior to its pirated counterparts. However movie piracy is far from being gone yet. However Netflix is a clear example that shows people are willing to pay for access to movies online even when pirated movies are available.