0.5% of Americans’ entertainment budgets designated for online video buys

Just 0.5% of Americans’ movie budget is spent downloading or streaming movies and TV shows from the Web, NPD reports. 41% of dollars budgeted for movies and video was spent on DVD movie purchases, 11% for purchases of TV programs on DVD, and 29% on DVD rentals, 18% was spent on movie tickets. When asked how they watched a full-length movie in the past three months, 67% of respondents said they viewed a DVD they owned, while 50% watched a rented DVD and 18% opted for a VOD movie. Another 8% said they viewed movies on portable media devices, while 6% downloaded a movie from a free file-sharing service and watched on a computer or TV. Just 2% paid for a digital video download from the Web; however, more than half (52%) reported visiting sites such as YouTube to watch streaming video.