Slow Roll-Out Drives TV Shows To Top Piracy Charts

Launching Disney+ in just three countries was a decision that has taken a toll on The Mandalorian, the hotly-anticipated Star Wars television show.

The first episode was already plastered on every pirating platform available three hours into release. According to a report by Comparitech last week, some regions saw unauthorised copies of The Mandalorian being illegally shared online hours before Disney even rolled out its exclusive streaming platform.

Disney+ is currently available in only the United States, Canada, and the Netherlands. Other regions such as Europe will have to wait until next year to get access to the subscription-based service. Hence, why the regions that pirated the most out of The Mandalorian were also the United Kingdom and Spain.

“Pirating Disney’s newly-available content is likely to be extremely widespread, especially given the company’s slow international roll-out,” noted the report. “Many young Star Wars fans who have never torrented before may be among the newest converts to file sharing as they search for copyright-infringing versions of content inaccessible in their own regions.”

You have to only cast a quick glance at any pirating website to see The Mandalorian available in various formats and the hundreds of thousands of downloads against each file. Due to the present circumstances, The Mandalorian has already become the most pirated television show of the year. In fact, based on the ongoing trend, there’s potential to even cross Game of Thrones to wear the crown for the most pirated television show of all time.

Disney, though, hasn’t been sitting idle. Thousands of takedown requests have already been sent to Google against hosts or links tied to unauthorized copies of the television show. However, in the age of the internet, those anti-piracy efforts will hardly prove effective.

Disney+ is scheduled to release in Australia and New Zealand later this week on November 19. The United Kingdom and other European countries will get their turn on March 31. For any Star Wars fan residing in those regions, waiting five or so months will be nearly impossible, specially when spoilers are already being posted all of the internet. In addition, knowing that certain regions in the world are already watching a highly anticipated television show makes the wait even harder. Suffice to say, the ridiculously slow roll-out is forcing even the most supporting of fans to embrace the dark side.

The Mandalorian will have eight episodes in the first season, two of which are already out. The storyline takes place five years after the fall of the Empire and before the emergence of the First Order, following a lone bounty hunter in the outer reaches of the galaxy far from the authority of the New Republic.