For all the hype that video downloading has received, it is clearly in its early stages of development, at least as measured by consumer satisfaction with the technology and services. A new survey from market research firm Parks Associates reports that only 16% of consumers say the selection of videos available online is good, and only 13% say video downloads are sold at a reasonable price. Less than 20% of consumers who have downloaded videos say they plan to download videos again in the future.
Interestingly, consumers who exclusively use legitimate video services which offer licensed copies of TV shows or movies and not person-to-person sites, are least happy with the service. 12% of those users say they are satisfied with the service vs. 21% of all users.
"People don't see a reason to use video downloading services," says 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." He added that niche markets will emerge, but mainstream consumers will remain lukewarm about the video download experience. “Good news for DVD makers, perhaps, but certainly not the feedback that online distributors like Apple are hoping to hear,” he says.
Other results include:
- 10% of users of legitimate sites and 19% of all video downloaders plan to continue to download videos
- 10% and 16% say the selection of videos available to download is very good
- 9% and 13% say the price is reasonable
- On the bright side, 10% and 14% say the quality of videos that they download is usually very bad
Parks Associates is a market research and consulting company specializing in emerging consumer technology products and services. Its Global Digital Living II survey includes more than 13,000 respondents in 13 countries.
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