Only one-in-five consumers will download online videos again
It appears that the days of the local video store may not be numbered after all, with few consumers in the US satisfied with the videos they download from the Internet, according to a new study by Parks Associates.
The study reveals that consumers are not impressed with the selection of videos available nor the price; just 16% said the selection of videos available online is good, and only 13% said video downloads are sold at a reasonable price. And what must really worry online movie distributors is that only one in five consumers plan to download videos again in the future.
The study, which was conducted as part of the Global Digital Living survey, included more than 13,000 respondents, and covered both legal video downloads from licensed services such as iTunes and illegal downloads from peer-to-peer networks.
Obviously, the study did not include video clip sharing services such as YouTube, which is going from strength to strength, despite being sued by every man and his dog.
While Parks Associates expected low satisfaction levels for consumers using unlicensed sources because their quality and reliability are generally low (a consequence of being an unlicensed service), the company found that even consumers who exclusively use legitimate services are unhappy with the experience, as you can see in the chart below:
“People don’t see a reason to use video downloading services,” said John Barrett, director of research at Parks Associates.
“Sure, it saves a trip to the video store, but it takes longer, looks worse, and you end up watching it on a 17″ screen. No wonder consumers are dissatisfied with the experience.”
While Barrett expected that niche markets would emerge, he believes mainstream consumers will remain lukewarm about video downloading.
“Good news for DVD makers, perhaps, but certainly not the feedback that online distributors like Apple are hoping to hear,” Barrett concluded.
Related Posts:
