New research has revealed that Brits store an average of £350 ($870m) worth of digital content on their hard drives, and that the people of North Scotland are the most prolific downloaders.
The study by Orange Home Broadband found that one in 20 users stores the equivalent of £500 ($1250m) worth of music on their computers.
An extrapolation of the figures indicates that the UK's computers are crammed with £16bn ($39bn) worth of music, movies and software.
Orange estimates that 20 percent of UK internet users legally download paid-for music and movie content, and that four percent of the population do so on a daily basis.
Downloaded content is perceived as very easy on the wallet compared to hard copies of music and video. Downloaders currently enjoy average savings of £4.08 ($10.13) per album and £5.47 ($13.60) per film, according to Orange.
However, five percent of content-hungry Brits are unable to download all the images, tracks or video clips they want owing to limits on their broadband package.
Asif Aziz, director of product management at Orange Home Broadband, said: "The money to be saved through downloading rather than buying hard copies of movies and albums is extraordinary.
"And with unlimited downloads now available, consumers can develop libraries twice the size for the same price."
Content on UK home PCs adds up to £16bn
By
Clement James
on Nov 27, 2006 9:56AM
