My mate Dave used to be an online pirate, especially when it came\u00a0to the latest TV series like Game of Thrones and Ray Donovan.<\/p>\n
Dave is a DStv Premium subscriber, but he said\u00a0that he previously had to wait for a week or longer after an\u00a0episode premiered in the United States before it was available locally.<\/p>\n
The Internet would be awash with spoilers long before the show would be available on DStv, which put South Africans at a severe disadvantage.<\/p>\n
According to Dave, he purchased the premier content subscription service, but Torrent platforms still served his needs better.<\/p>\n
He explained why he continued to pirate despite having a DStv Premium subscription: convenience, the immediate availability of content, and no advertisements during shows.<\/p>\n
Dave argued that he legally paid for the content through his DStv subscription, but that the platform did not serve his content consumption needs adequately.<\/p>\n
However, he started to change his behaviour over the last year. This was not a conscious or even moral decision, but rather a consequence of two things:<\/p>\n
When Dave arrived home after work and wanted to watch the latest episode of Game of Thrones, Suits, or Ray Donovan, it was available on his Explora in HD.<\/p>\n
No need to fire up his Torrent box, look for a good copy on The Pirate Bay, and wait for it to download on his 4Mbps ADSL line.<\/p>\n
DStv\u2019s latest services offer Dave a convenient way to consume the content he loves, provides it to him in a timely manner, and removes advertisements.<\/p>\n
Using DStv to watch TV shows is\u00a0now easier and better than pirating, he said.<\/p>\n
And to answer your questions: yes, Dave is a real person; he does not work for DStv; and since big torrents sites like KickassTorrents have gone down he has pirated a lot less media content. The article is an opinion piece.<\/p>\n