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Users want video downloads on the TV

Leader: A recent report by Accenture, surveying over 10,000 users across the globe, shows that consumers are just dying to get video downloads on their television sets, but there are some factors holding them back.

Users want more control over the content they watch on their television sets according to an Accenture report released this morning. Over 10,000 Internet users were surveyed in China, South Korea, Italy, Canada, United Kingdom, Taiwan, Germany, United States and Japan—with 1,609 being from the United States—to get a feeling for what consumers want in their future "digital homes. The results found that nearly half (47 percent) of those surveyed in the US want to be able to download movies, TV shows, and other video content to their television sets, with even more of those surveyed globally (54 percent) wishing for such technology.

Users seem to like having more control over what they watch and when they watch it than what's available to them via cable TV. Even digital cable offerings are more limiting than simply being able to download any video clip at any time. With the growing popularity of user-generated video sites like YouTube, MySpace Videos, and Google Video and video services such as iTunes or Amazon's Unbox, consumers continue to have even greater access to nearly any type of video content as each day passes. However, according to Accenture's report, video sites on the Internet are not enough to satiate that need. The TV set is still the most preferred platform for watching video, and consumers have an even greater desire to control their own content viewing on the television instead of the computer. Kumu Puri, a partner with the Communications and High-Tech sector of Accenture, told us that consumers are interested in alternative means of consuming media content, and "what rose to the top was watching movies, TV shows, other video content on the PC. However, one of the most unmet needs was to download that type of content and watch it on the television."

Before such technology begins to invade our living rooms en masse, however, tech companies and service providers need to overcome some challenges. Consumers show a great deal of frustration with the complexity of technology available to them and the poor service they seem to receive for it, according to the report. "Consumers are very frustrated with the complexity that they face, trying to make everything work together and getting the right help to figure it out" said Puri, going on to point out that consumers don't want to spend money and time getting everything to work together, they would rather it either (to borrow a phrase from Steve Jobs) "just work" or at least have tech companies provide enough useful help to get it to work. Consumers are even willing to pay extra for such services, with the majority of respondents indicating that they'd cough up some cash for help in product installation, technology support, service to back up data, service to monitor PCs, and the ability to call tech support.

Pricing is also a factor for most consumers—in fact, it is the number one concern amongst those surveyed, outweighing all other factors. Puri said that there is currently such a high degree of commoditization in the market that hard for providers to differentiate themselves, but that they could easily do so by providing better services at a decent price. "A lot of people are waiting to buy stuff because of price or because they think it'll get easier or better," she said, pointing out that consumers want to adopt cutting-edge technology in their homes and living rooms but feel overwhelmed with what they consider to be too expensive or too complex options.

Despite so many shortcomings, the Accenture report says that a huge majority of American consumers still believe that technology has made their lives easier and more fun. So can downloaded video content really take off on the TV? It seems that if tech companies and service providers get on the ball regarding ease-of-use and pricing in the coming months and years that the answer to that question would be a resounding "yes."