Most downloads via P2P are porn

And iTunes leads the way for legal downloads, owning 90% of the market

21 December 2006 11:38 GMT / By Amber Maitland

People are downloading more porn for free using P2P networks than downloading legal video downloads, according to research by analysts at the NPD Group.

NPD tracks digital video activity on the home computers of more than 12,500 US house who agree to install NPD’s software.

Figures from this research show that 8% of households are downloading from P2P networks, while only 2% are paying to download video files.

Astonishly, Apple’s iTunes counted for 90% of paid-for video downloads, followed by Vongo, Movielinke, and CinemaNow with less than 1%.

Only 6% is movie content; the majority is TV downloads at over 60%.

From the files downloaded via the 8% who are using P2P sites, 60% are adult-film content, while 20% are TV shows and 5% are mainstream movies.

“While video P2P downloading is less pervasive right now than for music, it is a crucial issue for the film industry to keep track of,” said Russ Crupnick, VP for The NPD Group. “Even though right now the majority of downloaded video content is adult-film content, 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.”