This is interesting news for all folks who support or use a P2P network.
http://investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=17&issue=20070402&view=1The same peer-to-peer networks that allow the illegal swapping of music are increasingly being used for sharing movies and TV shows.
"P2P (peer-to-peer) video only accounts for about 10% of file swapping right now, but it's growing at triple-digit rates," said Eric Garland, founder of Big Champagne, a Web tracking research firm.
"More and more people are getting their entertainment online without paying for it," Garland said. "P2P is more popular than ever before."
More than 9 million people log on to a P2P network worldwide each day, and that grows each year despite intense efforts by the entertainment industry to shut down the ones that operate illegally.
And it's going to get even tougher to stop the flow. In addition to P2P networks, numerous Web sites have surfaced that offer enough video content to fill a movie rental store.
Whilst I encourage folks to trade and swap their own content rather than waste time with the often "cardboard carton" content we see from big business I'm sure many do as they wish and trade and share whatever they wish.
The reality of knowing this is perhaps something the media companies should take stock of and at least attempt to work on utilising rather than attacking outright, after all where else can you find millions of potential customers all waiting and watching for new media content ?
To continue down the path of doing nothing except releasing hypothetical statistics each year waters down the case for believing any of their general claims and loses them the support they may have previously enjoyed from the consumer who now See's the market from a new perspective of "hyped" product and high price for often something not worth purchasing.
The facts are in public view and not disputed by the media companies, p2p users are statistically more likely to purchase content than ordinary consumers, their failure to address this huge marketing opportunity is perhaps due to entrenched views on revenue creation from yesteryear.
