iTunes owns 90% of paid video downloads
During the third quarter of 2006, consumers paid for and download approximately 1.2 million videos from online providers. Of these, about two thirds were TV shows, a quarter were music videos and about 6% were movies. Apple's iTunes store accounted for about 90% of these sales. Vongo came in second with about 5% of sales.
The vast majority of other video downloads? Porn. A Forbes.com article suggests that US consumers downloaded about six million porn videos in the Q3 of 2006, mostly from free illegal sites. The 1.2 million legal video downloads in that time period kind of pales in comparison.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Dru said 3:42PM on 12-20-2006
I don't mean to be a douche but why is TUAW using the outdated iTunes logo? On the other hand, hurrah Apple!
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Daveed V. said 4:30PM on 12-20-2006
I think the TUAW summary isn't quite right: It's not 1.2 million downloads, but 1.2 million households doing the download (at least as I read the linked Forbes article). I suspect that's a statistical estimate: They probably called a couple of hundred households, and extrapolated the data to U.S. population.
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Thataboy said 4:38PM on 12-20-2006
I think it is nuts that iTunes does not have an adult movie section. Historically, porn has driven MANY technological advances. Obviously, they could require one to sign into an age-appropriate Apple ID account... they could be restricted from even accessing the section via parental controls, etc.
But why can't adults have the option? Porn studios would line up, and Apple would sell millions. They could set up guidelines to disallow the most obscene stuff (anything with animals, violence/brutality, etc.). Why does EVERYTHING have to be disneyfied? We have a disney section -- can we also please have a grownups section?
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Don Wilson said 4:43PM on 12-20-2006
I don't quite understand the porn statistics because most porn sites use memberships and not per-video payments.
Thataboy - iTunes is way too small and easy to browse around for them to introduce pornography. It'll turn off a large portion of their customer base (parents).
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Thataboy said 5:15PM on 12-20-2006
First, parents watch plenty of porn.
Second, even if they didn't, why can't there be choice? If they don't like it, don't buy it. High School Musical personally offends me, but my choice is not to buy it.
The point is, there is some nutjob double standard when it comes to porn in this country. Virtually everyone likes it and watches it, yet tons of people will deny it to their deathbeds. It's just sex, people. Trust me, your precious 14 year olds are doing dirtier stuff in the middle school restrooms. Let's stop pretending everyone is a little ball of innocence. You don't think kids can get porn online on the web, at home, in school, in libraries.. hell on their phones?
God forbid!! Let junior play Halo 7 and download Saw 13 though.
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The Plaid Cow said 5:19PM on 12-20-2006
So how does iTunes grow? Sell porn.
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superjeff said 6:06PM on 12-20-2006
Thataboy,
I don't disagree with any of your arguments, but can you imagine the media frenzy if Apple decided to offer porn? Apple doesn't want the bad press.
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Liquidmark said 7:12PM on 12-20-2006
The possibility of Apple selling porn on iTunes?
This topic is of interest to me.
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slingshot said 2:39AM on 12-21-2006
"The point is, there is some _nutjob double standard_ when it comes to porn in this country"
Is that a position?
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JR said 10:49AM on 12-21-2006
Daveed V.,
Your kind of correct. The article states 1.2mil households dowloaded AT LEAST 1 video. Given that stat, we can assume there were more than 1.2mil video downloads in Qtr3'06. Actual downloads will probably approach, but not surpass 2mil for that quarter.
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Daveed V. said 4:02PM on 12-21-2006
JR: I wonder if it might be more than that. The note indicates that 2/3 of the downloads are TV shows, which is perhaps iTunes strongest video offering. I wouldn't be surprised that a good chunk of the TV-show-downloading iTunes customers download either whole seasons, or significant fractions of seasons.
If that were right, it could up the total quite a bit. Apple occasionally reports milestones numbers. So we might know more in January.
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