DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group, the DVD industry’s cheerleading squad, just released a study showing that consumers prefer watching a movie on DVD or TV instead of downloading it.
The video industry trades both positioned this bit of non-news as “just 10% preferred to watch a movie via streaming or downloading.”
Download Movies 101 finds it surprising that 10% of consumers actually do prefer downloading over just spinning a disc. The number probably is partially explained by the fact that all of the respondents reported they watched three or more hours of streaming video a week — read, YouTube.
The news stories didn’t say how the survey question(s) were phrased, but here’s betting it didn’t go like this:
“Would you prefer to download a rented movie for $3.99 and watch it right away on your computer or TiVo, or pay twice as much to rent a used disc that you have to pick up and return — or wait days for in the mail.”
When you consider something like 5% of the computer world is on Macs, that 10% looks a bit more promising.
“It was interesting to learn that while consumers are embracing digital entertainment, DVD remains the most popular means for viewing video content in the home,” said DEG co-chairman Matt Lasorsa of New Line.
Did DEG seriously expect to find anything else?
One interesting result: 24% said they would pay to watch a movie online (or burn a DVD) at the same time the movie runs in theaters — what the biz calls day and date.
The SmithGeiger-conducted study “Online Content: New Pathways of Discovery and Use” surveyed 1,035 broadband users in the U.S., ages 18 to 49.
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