Download Monitoring - New report on downloading behaviour and consumption patterns in the United States, France and the UK

FARMINGTON, Conn. (BusinessWire EON) March 14, 2007 --     IDATE and Mediametrie/NetRatings have published the first edition of their "Download Monitoring" report which analyses legal and illegal downloading of music, video and video games in France, the United States and the UK. Based on an exclusive survey of over 4,000 Internet users, and enhanced by tracking P2P software usage, this report makes it possible to measure the latest evolutions in the peer-to-peer (P2P) segment, along with figure-backed development scenarios for the downloading market as a whole.

As it becomes increasingly ubiquitous, downloading is opening up onto more and more complex behaviour patterns, which can be summarized in a few key points:

-- Around 50% of all Internet users perform downloads online. Among the various forms of downloading, unauthorised P2P is more common in the UK and in France than in the United States. On the flipside, the US is home to the highest percentage of web users who pay to download online content (66%).

-- Although young users are the most frequent downloaders, the practice involves all age groups, with few discrepancies between the sexes.

-- Average spending on content downloads totals GBP 3.80/month in France, GBP 7.30/month in the UK and GBP 5.20/month in the United States -with music accounting for the largest portion of spending, ahead of software.

-- Depending on the country being examined, web users download an average 53 to 73 files a month. Pictures and photos are the most commonly downloaded content, followed by music.

-- Legal file downloads account for roughly 15% of all file downloads in France, 20% in the UK and 25% in the United States.

-- The chief disincentives to paying for downloads are the price of the content, the poor selection of content on offer, and the inability to listen to and/or preview the content before downloading.

Among the many lessons drawn from the study, the following can serve as a guide for better understanding the phenomenon:

-- Whether legal offers (whose numbers are growing) or illegal ones, downloading is becoming a commonplace practice. Paid music services in particular are enjoying significant growth, as are video and video games, albeit more recently and to a lesser degree.

-- Free downloading, too, is on the rise, particularly through P2P networks, and still accounts for the majority of downloads.

-- Paid and illegal downloads are not mutually exclusive, however: a great many paid service customers are also peer-to-peer users.

-- The computer remains the platform of choice for downloading content -with mobile phones still playing an only marginal role.

The Groundbreaking approach delivers the results of a panel that combines Internet users statements and tracking their actual online behaviour, through:

-- Analysis of data on Internet usage gathered in real time - a sample of over 100,000 Internet households in the United States, 30,000 households in France and 20,000 in the UK.

-- An exclusive online survey of 4,273 Internet users in France, the United Kingdom and the United States, examining users' attitudes and motives: Internet user profile, identification of the type of downloads performed, intentions to use P2P applications, type of devices used...

-- Analysis of these results by experts who, over the years, have acquired in-depth knowledge of the phenomenon: monitoring P2P offers around the globe, understanding the players' business models and value chains (Internet, telecom, media, etc.).

http://www.the-infoshop.com/study/iu45761-download.html

For more information on this report please visit our website at www.the-infoshop.com, contact an account executive via e-mail sales@the-infoshop.com or telephone one of GII's international offices http://www.the-infoshop.com/contact_en.shtml