https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/aug/14/cant-pay-wont-pay-impoverished-streaming-services-are-driving-viewers-back-to-piracy [p] Skip to main contentSkip to navigation Close dialogue1/2Next imagePrevious imageToggle caption Skip to navigation Print subscriptions Newsletters Sign in US[ ] * US edition * UK edition * Australia edition * Europe edition * International edition The Guardian - Back to homeThe Guardian [ ] * News * Opinion * Sport * Culture * Lifestyle Show moreHide expanded menu * [ ]News + View all News + US news + US politics + World news + Climate crisis + Middle East + Ukraine + US immigration + Soccer + Business + Environment + Tech + Science + Newsletters + Wellness * [ ]Opinion + View all Opinion + The Guardian view + Columnists + Letters + Opinion videos + Cartoons * [ ]Sport + View all Sport + Soccer + NFL + Tennis + MLB + MLS + NBA + WNBA + NHL + F1 + Golf * [ ]Culture + View all Culture + Film + Books + Music + Art & design + TV & radio + Stage + Classical + Games * [ ]Lifestyle + View all Lifestyle + Wellness + Fashion + Food + Recipes + Love & sex + Home & garden + Health & fitness + Family + Travel + Money * Search input [ ] google-search Search + Support us + Print subscriptions + Newsletters + Download the app * + Search jobs + Digital Archive + Guardian Licensing + Live events + About Us + The Guardian app + Video + Podcasts + Pictures + Inside the Guardian + Guardian Weekly + Crosswords + Wordiply + Corrections + Tips * Search input [ ] google-search Search + Search jobs + Digital Archive + Guardian Licensing + Live events + About Us * World * Europe * US news * Americas * Asia * Australia * Middle East * Africa * Inequality * Global development Economic lessons from the Renaissance: Valentina Belle and Alessandro Sperduti in TV series Medici [ ] Economic lessons from the Renaissance: Valentina Belle and Alessandro Sperduti in TV series Medici. Photograph: Netflix View image in fullscreen Economic lessons from the Renaissance: Valentina Belle and Alessandro Sperduti in TV series Medici. Photograph: Netflix Piracy Can't pay, won't pay: impoverished streaming services are driving viewers back to piracy As subscription costs rise and choice diminishes on legal sites, film and TV fans are turning to VPNs and illicit streamers, with Sweden - home of both Spotify and The Pirate Bay - leading the way Gabriel V Rindborg Thu 14 Aug 2025 03.00 EDTLast modified on Thu 14 Aug 2025 11.18 EDT Share The Guardian's journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more. With a trip to Florence booked, all I want is to rewatch Medici. The 2016 historical drama series tells of the rise of the powerful Florentine banking dynasty, and with it, the story of the Renaissance. Until recently, I could simply have gone to Netflix and found it there, alongside a wide array of award-winning and obscure titles. But when I Google the show in 2025, the Netflix link only takes me to a blank page. I don't see it on HBO Max, Disney+, Apple TV+, or any of the smaller streaming platforms. On Amazon Prime I am required to buy each of the three seasons or 24 episodes separately, whereupon they would be stored in a library subject to overnight deletion. Raised in the land of The Pirate Bay, the Swedish torrent index, I feel, for the first time in a decade, a nostalgia for the high seas of digital piracy. And I am not alone. The Guardian's journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more. For my teenage self in the 00s, torrenting was the norm. Need the new Coldplay album on your iPod? The Pirate Bay. The 1968 adaptation of Romeo and Juliet? The Pirate Bay. Whatever you needed was accessible with just a couple of clicks. But as smartphones proliferated, so did Spotify, the music streaming platform that is also headquartered in Sweden. The same Scandinavian country had become a hub of illegal torrenting and simultaneously conjured forth its solution. "Spotify would never have seen the light of day without The Pirate Bay," Per Sundin, the then managing director of Universal Music Sweden, reflected in 2011. But music torrenting died out as we all either listened with ads or paid for the subscription. And when Netflix launched in Sweden in late 2012, open talk of torrenting moving images also stopped. Most of the big shows and a great collection of award-winning films could all be found for just 79 SEK (PS6) a month. Meanwhile, the three founders of The Pirate Bay were arrested and eventually jailed. Pirating faded into the history books as far as I was concerned. In Sweden, 25% of people reported pirating in 2024 - a trend driven by 15-24-year-olds A decade and a half on from the Pirate Bay trial, the winds have begun to shift. On an unusually warm summer's day, I sit with fellow film critics by the old city harbour, once a haven for merchants and, rumour has it, smugglers. Cold bigstrongs in hand (that's what they call pints up here), they start venting about the "enshittification" of streaming - enshittification being the process by which platforms degrade their services and ultimately die in the pursuit of profit. Netflix now costs upwards of 199 SEK (PS15), and you need more and more subscriptions to watch the same shows you used to find in one place. Most platforms now offer plans that, despite the fee, force advertisements on subscribers. Regional restrictions often compel users to use VPNs to access the full selection of available content. The average European household now spends close to EUR700 (PS600) a year on three or more VOD subscriptions. People pay more and get less. A fellow film critic confides anonymously: "I never stopped pirating, and my partner also does it if he doesn't find the precise edition he is looking for on DVD." While some people never abandoned piracy, others admit they have recently returned - this time turning to unofficial streaming platforms. One commonly used app is legal but can, through community add-ons, channel illicit streams. "Downloading is too difficult. I don't know where to start," says one film viewer. "The shady streams might bombard me with ads, but at least I don't have to worry about getting hacked or caught." Life on the open seas ... Swedish-based filesharing website The Pirate Bay.View image in fullscreen Life on the open seas ... Swedish-based filesharing website The Pirate Bay. Photograph: FocusDigital/Alamy According to London-based piracy monitoring and content-protection firm MUSO, unlicensed streaming is the predominant source of TV and film piracy, accounting for 96% in 2023. Piracy reached a low in 2020, with 130bn website visits. But by 2024 that number had risen to 216bn. In Sweden, 25% of people surveyed reported pirating in 2024, a trend mostly driven by those aged 15 to 24. Piracy is back, just sailing under a different flag. Streaming was supposed to stop piracy. Now it is easier than ever Read more "Piracy is not a pricing issue," Gabe Newell, the co-founder of Valve, the company behind the world's largest PC gaming platform, Steam, observed in 2011. "It's a service issue." Today, the crisis in streaming makes this clearer than ever. With titles scattered, prices on the rise, and bitrates throttled depending on your browser, it is little wonder some viewers are raising the jolly roger again. Studios carve out fiefdoms, build walls and levy tolls for those who wish to visit. The result is artificial scarcity in a digital world that promised abundance. Whether piracy today is rebellion or resignation is almost irrelevant; the sails are hoisted either way. As the streaming landscape fractures into feudal territories, more viewers are turning to the high seas. The Medici understood the value linked to access. A client could travel from Rome to London and still draw on their credit, thanks to a network built on trust and interoperability. If today's studios want to survive the storm, they may need to rediscover that truth. Explore more on these topics * Piracy * TV streaming * Television * Pirate Bay * Music streaming * Internet * Filesharing * features Share Reuse this content Most viewed Most viewed 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. * World * Europe * US news * Americas * Asia * Australia * Middle East * Africa * Inequality * Global development * News * Opinion * Sport * Culture * Lifestyle Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning Sign up for our email * About us * Help * Complaints & corrections * SecureDrop * Work for us * * Privacy policy * Cookie policy * Terms & conditions * Contact us * All topics * All writers * Digital newspaper archive * Tax strategy * Facebook * YouTube * Instagram * LinkedIn * Newsletters * Advertise with us * Guardian Labs * Search jobs * Tips * Accessibility settings Back to top (c) 2025 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. (dcr)