Downloading on the up

We are a nation of download addicts, with over half the population (55 per cent) spending an average 172 hours (or more than seven solid days) of leisure time per year downloading from the internet. This compares to 78 hours playing or watching football for men or 194 hours a year spent shopping for women.

The study of downloading habits, by price comparison website moneysupermarket.com, shows people are making the most of the greater download speeds and capacity now available to home users, with nearly a fifth (18 per cent) downloading more than five times a week, and more than one in 10 (12 per cent) spending at least an hour a day downloading.

Men are the overall champs, with 66 per cent downloading, compared to 44 per cent of women.

Music is still top of the pops for both sexes with 69 per cent of people having downloaded at least one tune. Perhaps more surprisingly software updates (60 per cent) is the second most popular download, ahead of freeware/shareware (50 per cent) and games (37 per cent). Of all material, games are the only genre downloaded more by women (41 per cent) than by men (34 per cent).

Adult content, the original trailblazer of the internet world, still has a captive audience with 20 per cent of men and two per cent of women owning up to downloading it. A risk-taking eight per cent of employees download it at work.

Most choose to download to their home computer. Seventeen per cent of those surveyed spent over four hours downloading at home in the average week and one in 10 people said they downloaded information more than eight times a week. Employers can breathe a sigh of relief, as the research demonstrates that on the whole people are conscientious downloaders and only two per cent of employees who do it at work are doing so without permission.

Jason Lloyd, head of broadband at price comparison website moneysupermarket.com, said: “Our research reveals that people’s appetite for downloading has grown and it is now an everyday occurrence. Broadband providers have responded by increasing download limits on their products dramatically – a turnaround from a few years ago when most only offered one or two gigabytes per month, whereas now you can get 40 to 60 gigabytes per month.”

“This massive increase in downloading also partly explains why broadband packages with unlimited download capacities are hugely popular amongst consumers. However, it is important to remember a truly unlimited download capacity is now almost a myth. It is actually only a few small specialist ISP’s (internet service providers) and NTL:Telewest where unlimited really means unlimited. Other providers have a fair usage policy in place. This means they can implement measures to control how much you download if they feel you are downloading too much material too often.”

It seems that as downloading has become easier and more accessible some people have descended into the world of illegal downloads, with 17 per cent admitting to using the internet in this way. However, a quarter (25 per cent) of people have never considered downloading files illegally, with 24 per cent not wanting to break the law or are being afraid of the penalties if they were caught.

Despite the best efforts of online businesses, we are not so keen to spend great sums of money online to download music, ringtones and video content. Of all downloaders, 83 per cent only spend £2 or less each week on this content, perhaps explaining the popularity of the illegal sites. Only 8 per cent of people spend more than £5 each week on these items.

Lloyd added: “As online competition increases, prices of paid-for content will come down. This will result in the number of people looking for the ability to download music, TV programmes and photos continuing to grow. In response I expect to see more broadband providers offering packages with larger or unlimited download capacities. However, I would urge people to bear both cost and usage policy in mind when choosing a new provider.”