TV, movie downloads rarely watched on big display
More shows are being watched on computers than TVs
By Danny King -- Video Business, 3/17/2008
MARCH 17 | More than one in four adults who regularly acquire content from the Internet download TV shows, while 15% download full-length movies, according to digital rights management product maker Macrovision, citing a poll it commissioned from Harris Interactive.
Very few of these movies and TV shows downloaded by consumers ever make it to the TV for display, however, the survey said. Just 5% of downloaders most often use either a TV, DVD player or digital video recorder to play the content, compared with 10% who want to use these devices, Macrovision said. More than half of the people who download content most often play it on a personal computer, the survey said.
The disparity helps justify the efforts of established companies such as Amazon.com and Apple and newer entities including Vudu and Hulu to create systems that quickly download movies or shows directly to TV sets. It also supports many studio executives’ belief that the DVD will remain the primary method of movie rentals or purchases for at least the next five years.
“I was a little surprised at how few people are interested in downloading video content today,” said Richard Bullwinkle, chief evangelist at Macrovision. “While people very quickly figured out the music scenario—either legally or illegally—they haven’t figured that out for video.”
Movie downloaders surveyed said they’d be willing to pay $4.66 per full-length film, on average, while people who download TV shows said they’d pay $1.97 an episode. Apple’s iTunes service lets customers rent movies for as little as $2.99 and sells them for as little as $9.99. TV shows can be downloaded from iTunes for $1.99 an episode.
The online survey of 2,254 U.S. adults was conducted Dec. 26-28. Of those polled, 43% download digital media from the Internet.
Of those surveyed who buy DVDs or CDs, one in three said they would stop buying physical discs and switch to exclusively downloading digital media within the next five years, while about half those surveyed said they would “never” switch over.
Macrovision, which makes digital rights management products, commissioned the survey as it tries to transform itself into an all-in-one digital-content service. Last year, the company bought entertainment database producer All Media Guide Holdings and Mediabolic, which makes software for connected electronic devices such as TVs, DVRs and set-top boxes. In December, Macrovision said it will buy Gemstar-TV Guide International—a leading provider of TV listings and on-screen guide technologies—in a cash-and-stock deal worth $2.8 billion.
“We decided to become an enablement company instead of a prevention company,” said Bullwinkle, a former TiVo executive.
