MUMBAI: Here’s some food for thought for Indian TV channel broadcasting executives zapping their channels via satellite, cable TV or VOD services into Russia and syndicating content to Vladmir Putin’s land. And this includes movies such as Sultan, and super popular shows such as Naagin.

A survey by content and data security specialist IRDETO in partnership with YouGov amongst 1,055 Russian adults online, revealed that 87 per cent of Russian consumers believed that producing or sharing pirated video content is not against the law while 66 per cent think that streaming or downloading pirated content is legal.

Russia, like India and many other nations, has strict regulations against unauthorized copying, broadcasting, distribution or reproduction of copyrighted material – including audiovisual content.

More than half of those (57 per cent) who participated in the survey said that they actively watch pirated content while 22 per cent said that they watch stolen shows and films at least once a week or more.

38 per cent of respondents said that they pirate current movies being shown in theatres, 21 per cent said theat they were interested in pirating a TV series. Pirated live sports, OTT content from Netflix and Hulu was preferred by just six per cent of those who answered the survey.

Almost 75 per cent use their laptops or desktop computers to watch the pirated content whereas tablets and smart phones accounted for just five percent each respectively.