Free Content Dominates Video Downloads

More than four times as many households downloaded videos from file-sharing networks as they did from centralized services like iTunes in the third quarter of 2006.

Downloads from file-sharing networks are generally free, and have long occurred outside the control of copyright holders. The cost of for-pay downloads, about 90 percent of which go through iTunes, generally includes a licensing fee.

But not many of the freeloaders are actually downloading mainstream content, according to the new data on downloading, which was gathered by the NPD Group, a consumer-research firm, through tracking software installed in 12,500 households. Only about 20 percent of the videos downloaded from file-sharing networks were TV shows, and 5 percent were mainstream movies, while just under 60 percent were pornographic movies.