Thursday, December 21,2006 @ 9:45am
Apple seizes 90% of paid video downloads
A new research study suggests that Apple currently serves up 90 percent of paid video downloads. NPD Group announced that roughly 1.2 million U.S. households purchased at least one video from an online store in the third quarter of 2006. The study showed that 62 percent of customers opted for TV shows, while 24 percent elected to purchase music videos online. Apple's sales are still dwarfed by illegal downloads via peer-to-peer services, however, with adult movies making up almost 60 percent of that traffic. "The amount of intellectual property stolen from mainstream movie studios, networks and record labels will continue to rise, unless strong and sustained action is taken to prevent piracy," said NPD analyst Russ Crupnick, who also believes that the number of paid downloads will double or triple in the next year. Around 5 percent of paid downloads came from Vongo, while another 3 percent stemmed from Movielink, according to Forbes.com. CinemaNow was responsible for less than 1 percent of paid downloads.