A third of those with internet and digital TV dont feel file sharing is wrong

A survey has recently been produced by consumer research firm, Ovum on the downloading of illegal video that has concluded that many people still use P2P services and networks to download illegal video content.

Only one out of three broadband users who also had digital TV said that they would never watch illegal video and that downloading illegal content was wrong, according to the Video Trends Survey from Ovum. Those admitting to downloading illegal content to watch accounted for almost a third but most admitted that it was wrong, with 25 percent of the total survey admitting this fact.

Further survey data concluded that a mere 4 percent of all those surveyed regularly downloaded content illegally, and a significant proportion believing this was not necessarily wrong, with an average of 15 percent thinking like this, but in other countries this ranged from 8 to 26 percent.

The number of respondents claiming that they were ‘not sure’ whether downloading illegal video content was wrong or not came to a further quarter, which indicates that other than those who admitted to these activities those who were still not convinced by the moral argument accounted for two in every five respondents.

Content owners, service providers and broadband network operators will all find these results to be of major concern. The perception that is widely held by consumers is that video on the internet is there for the taking and this will make it very difficult for Internet Service Providers or content owners to change this view that good content can be obtained for free.

It appears that only a small number of users would pay for online content even if archive TV series and blockbuster movies were available through legitimate distribution, or if improvements were made to viewing experience such as the removal of buffering delays or higher picture resolution, based on the research from Ovum.

Although some of the more cost-sensitive and reticent consumers have been drawn to paying for licensed content due to the lowering of prices many more still refuse to pay for video on the internet. Even consumers who can afford to pay for premium content simply don’t want to, even with a constantly expanding range of legitimate catch-up TV options that are available through HD-ready sets.