The effects of broadband on the consumption film at theatres in Brazil

ABSTRACT

We use a large emerging economy’s broadband adoption as a quasi-natural experiment to study the effects of Internet access the consumption of films at theaters. Based on individual-level large samples, available for 2002/3 and 2008/9, we find a negative effect, and we are not able to rule out the hypothesis of film piracy since neither DVD nor cable TV, the more important legal substitute goods, have their consumption increased due to broadband.

KEYWORDS:

• Broadband
• internet
• films at theaters
• piracy

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• L860
• L820
• L80

Acknowledgments

We thank the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) that supported this research under the scholarship Bolsa Produtividade em Pesquisa (2015–2018).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ http://www.caminhosdabandalarga.org.br/2012/10/capitulo-1.