The new Olswang UK Convergence Consumer Survey 2007 reveals that consumers are embracing home networking and using the home computer as a true entertainment device to download free content.

The new Olswang UK Convergence Consumer Survey 2007 reveals that consumers are embracing home networking and using the home computer as a true entertainment device to download free content.

To secure free content consumers are willing to tolerate online advertisements which they would normally go out of their way to avoid. And of course some are even willing to deliberately break the law to secure free content, while others simply don't understand the law.

Olswang, in conjunction with YouGov, has conducted a nationally representative independent survey of over 1,800 consumers over a  wide age range and shows that over 30% of respondents streaming or downloading movie and TV content and even greater numbers watching the range of free content that is already available on websites such as YouTube (63%) as well as streaming music (42%) and accessing podcasts (33%). However, people are much less willing to pay for audiovisual content, with free content being consumed by approximately three times as many people as paid content and those not yet consuming also being around three times more interested in free content.

Although the lion's share of current regular viewing is free content from user-generated content sites and TV clips and movie trailers, each month nearly one in seven (14%) respondents download or stream free TV programmes to keep. Even more consumers (18%) download or stream free programmes for a limited time (e.g. from time-limited "catch-up" TV services) each month, although movies are more likely to be acquired permanently (12%) than temporarily (9%). 12% of respondents who use the computer to obtain audiovisual entertainment already play this back through the main television screen, not a computer monitor, by plugging the PC into the television screen (9%) or through a dedicated streaming device (3%). Respondents are becoming more determined not to pay and seem frustrated at the lack of free content. However, among illegal downloaders, a greater proportion are already paying or willing to pay for content (20% as against the 12% in the overall sample). These are presumed to include content junkies' who just want whatever content they can lay their hands on. The survey does not make encouraging reading for those seeking to persuade consumers to buy online content. People generally won't pay and, where they will, this is at the expense of other media, principally DVD.

A summary can be found at http://www.olswang.com/printversion.asp?sid=136&aid=1974&mid=136
Click here http://www.olswang.com/convergence07/default.asp to access the survey results.