After years of declining use, BitTorrent is growing again thanks to the rise of streaming service exclusive shows.

The claim comes from broadband networks provider Sandvine Corp. in its October Global Internet Phenomena Report. It notes that despite years of decline as services such as Netflix Inc. have come to the fore, BitTorrent is growing again as more shows are being offered exclusively on different services.

“More sources than ever are producing ‘exclusive’ content available on a single streaming or broadcast service – think ‘Game of Thrones’ for HBO, ‘House of Cards’ for Netflix, ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ for Hulu, or ‘Jack Ryan’ for Amazon,” the reports authors wrote last week. “To get access to all of these services, it gets very expensive for a consumer, so they subscribe to one or two and pirate the rest.”

Adding to the upswing in BitTorrent traffic, the report also noted, many of the exclusive series do not have distribution internationally, meaning that people in other countries have no choice but to obtain illegal copies to watch the shows.

Distribution timing is also noted as encouraging BitTorrent use because some shows, “Game of Thrones” cited in particular, are not offered at the same time worldwide, so some people deciding to pirate the content instead of waiting for it.

There were some other interesting takeaways from the report as online video has become ubiquitous. Video is now said to account for 50 percent of internet traffic, with Netflix accounting for 15 percent.

Highlighting the geographic differences between legal services, BitTorrent file sharing now accounts for 32 percent of upstream data traffic in Europe, Africa and the Middle East but only 9 percent of traffic in the Americas.

The increase in BitTorrent traffic, as driven by exclusive content, is likely to continue as companies such as Crunchyroll Inc., Apple Inc. and The Walt Disney Co. enter the market with their own streaming services complete with exclusive content.

While online streaming services have worked to reduce piracy, the increased cost to subscribe to many may suggest we’re on the verge of a new age of mass content piracy.

Photo: Geograph