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Brits have lost £1 billion of digital media content

9th September 2013 Print

People have lost over two billion pieces of digital media content, such as songs and apps, in the last two years alone, according to research from Sainsbury's Bank home insurance.

The research suggests that many Brits have lost their content as a result of electronic devices being damaged, lost, or stolen and where the content was not recoverable.  The potential value of this content is over £1 billion.  
 
Sainsbury's Bank is encouraging consumers to ensure their digital content is protected by regularly backing it up, ensuring it can be recovered should anything happen to their device. External hard drives, memory sticks and online cloud storage services are just a few options to consider.
 
In addition, Sainsbury's Bank home insurance policies provide cover for the loss of digital information as standard. Sainsbury's Bank home insurance has two levels of cover, one offering up to £1,000 and the other up to £3,000 for digital content that cannot be recovered because the device was stolen, or damaged due to fire or flood while in the home. The supermarket bank also provides cover for items away from the home under its Personal Possessions cover that customers can add on to their policy.
 
David Barrett of Sainsbury's Home Insurance said: "Technology is forever evolving and it has changed the way we store and share our memories and digital entertainment. We'd encourage anyone who uses electronic devices that store music, photos, films or any other form of digital content, to back them up regularly and make use of services that protect their purchases, for example saving duplicates securely online. It is also worth checking your home insurance policy as it may offer an additional layer of protection - some providers, like our home insurance, include digital downloads cover as standard."
 
Photographs
 
The research reveals that many people have also lost cherished memories as a result of being unable to recover photographs from digital devices. Across Britain, an estimated 759 million photographs have been lost in the last two years.  
 
Music

Over one billion songs have been lost in the last 24 months. Those affected by device loss or failure were unable to recover an average of 995 tracks each. Given that the average price of a track on one of the UK's leading music downloads websites is £0.79, each of those affected could have lost an estimated £786.05 of content. Across Britain people have lost music content estimated to be worth over £992 million in just two years.
 
Movies

On average, each person has been unable to recover 20 films in the last two years. In total, approximately 7.9 million films have been lost from digital devices, worth an estimated £27.5 million.
 
Apps

Over 17.9 million apps have also been lost that could not be recovered, worth an estimated £12.3 million.    
 
The average British household now boasts an incredible number of high-tech devices.  Across the country on average 84% homes have a laptop, with 71% of households now boasting at least one smartphone.  The inexorable rise of eReaders is reflected by the findings that on average, a third (31%) of homes in the UK has one of these devices, with tablet devices present in 40% of properties (on average).