First, some good news for the developing video-download market: about 1.2 million U.S. households purchased at least one video download from an online store in the third quarter, the NPD Group said Tuesday.
Now the bad news: about five times that many households downloaded a video from a free file-sharing network. And most of that was porn.
Among the free video downloads from file-sharing networks recorded in the third quarter, nearly 60% was adult-film content, 20% was TV show content and 5% was mainstream movie content, NPD said.
Although downloading video content via file-sharing networks isn't as widespread as it is for music, "it is a crucial issue for the film industry to keep track of,'' NDP senior analyst Russ Crupnick said in a statement.
"Even though right now the majority of downloaded video content is adult-film content," Crupnick said, "the amount of intellectual property stolen from mainstream movie studios, networks and record labels will continue to rise, unless strong and sustained action is taken to prevent piracy."
Despite these challenges, Crupnick believes paid downloads "could double or triple within the next year as more content comes online, consumers acquire more video-enabled players and movies are offered that consumers can actually burn to DVD.''
Whether free or paid, movies still make up a very small portion of overall video downloads.
Of paid downloads, 62% was TV content, 24% was music video content and 6% was mainstream movie content. Where were consumers buying these downloads? About 90% percent came from