Piracy on internet costs £45m in video sales

Three times as many internet users now download films and TV series as a year ago, according to new figures released by the video industry.

Three times as many internet users now download films and TV series as a year ago, according to new figures released by the video industry.

Among the popular films targeted by Britain's 1.6 million downloaders were Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill and television series such as The Sopranos and The Office.

The British Video Association (BVA) estimated that online piracy was losing the industry up to £45m in sales. But Lavinia Carey, the BVA director general, said that loss was dwarfed by the cost of physical piracy, such as DVDs sold at car boot sales, which was estimated to be worth more than £500m. According to a study of 16,000 people for the BVA, the typical downloader is male, between 16 and 34, and has access to a high-speed network. On average they download about 30 film or television episodes a year.

The rise in downloading, which has come in parallel with the growth in broadband connections, came as DVD sales generally increased by 61 per cent to £2.42bn.

One analyst argued: "People who download buy more DVDs than the average member of the public, because they are more interested in films,"