Consumers slow to purchase digital video

PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y. A new report from The NPD Group, people are embracing digital video in large numbers, however the percentage of those who use paid download services is significantly less. According to NPD’s “Digital Video in America” report, in 2006 seven in 10 Internet-enabled households in the U.S. had digital video files saved on their home PCs. However, the study also found that fewer than 2% of Internet households purchased digital video content in the first quarter of 2007.

Of those who did purchase digital video, NPD found that the majority of what they bought was television content. According to the study, this accounted for more than three-quarters of all video purchased. NPD noted that one-third of the purchased TV programs were also available for free on TV network Web sites.

The NPD Group reported that even among the small group of consumers paying to download video files, digital video download services have not yet become integrated aspects of consumers’ TV and movie viewing. The study found that 30% of consumers who purchase video for download, purchased just one digital video title per quarter and only 14% of digital video consumers reported using digital video download services at least once a month.