Broadband News

A recent survey of 2,400 UK broadband users revealed that only a few are downloading full length films on demand. With most people blaming slow download connections as the major culprit, many claim they would be prepared to download them if the performance was better.

According to the survey undertaken by CacheLogic, 85% of users have never downloaded a full length film or a TV programme, with 15% having downloaded a TV programme and only 14% having downloaded a feature length film.

The two main reasons for the lack of downloading from the consumers was ‘speed of download’ and ‘reliability’. Yet when asked about a video-on-demand service that operated quickly and easily, 65% were interested compared to 13% who would not be interested at all.

“These results challenge conventional wisdom that widespread consumer acceptance of video on demand is dependant on seamless integration into living room TV sets. Consumers are clearly ready to use their PCs to watch TV shows and movies. We just need to provide the content quickly and efficiently.” said Andrew Parker, Chief Technical Officer at CacheLogic

However the likely hood of a speedy and reliable HD video-on-demand service in the near future is laughable according to Mark Cuban, founder of HD.net. He claims that the UK’s “ancient technology” of coaxial cable and copper wires means that reliable streaming of HD content is just not feasible.

“Internet video is only as good as its weakest link”, he said, “and that’s pretty weak… The concept of Internet-delivered video replacing traditional TV was laughable and not even on the radar.”

This is not surprising considering the only type of content we are able to successfully stream in the UK is YouTube quality.

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