If the confinement tended to push French Internet users to defraud to access online content, 2022 seems to mark the return to normality, according to Arcom. In its Barometer 2022 of the consumption of dematerialized cultural goodsthe independent authority takes stock of the uses of 12 cultural assets by French Internet users.
Since 2011, this barometer measures the online use of nine cultural assets (series, movies, music, photos, videogames, software, digital books and online press). For this new wave, Arcom has decided to add three new types of products: podcasts, live shows and documentaries.
Above all, the study shows that more and more French Internet users are consuming dematerialized cultural goods. In 2022, 86% of users aged 15 or over consumed at least one dematerialized cultural asset, 2 points more year-on-year.
Popular movies, series and music
In detail, the three cultural goods most consumed by Internet users remain the same as in previous years, with movies (54%), music (50%) and television series (49%).
Documentaries, which are part of the new types of goods measured by Arcom, are consumed by 29% of French Internet users. The authority recorded a consumption of 17% for podcasts and 7% for live shows, the lowest category measured in the barometer.
Photography is the multimedia sector that has benefited from the greatest growth, with an increase of three points in one year. Unlikesoftware is the cultural good that falls the most, going from consumption of 24% in 2021 to 22% in 2022.
Less illegal use
What also emerges from this barometer is the good behavior of French Internet users with regard to their consumption of dematerialized cultural goods. Exclusively legal uses increase year after year. They now affect almost three quarters (73%) of online consumers of cultural goods and 62% of Internet users as a whole.
However, the youngest are reluctant to make fully respectful use of online works. Only 12% of 15-24 year olds claimed to have exclusively legally consumed cultural goods online. The most consumed cultural goods illegally are books and audiobooks (up 24%), movies and software (23%), as well as live sports broadcasts such as the World Cup (22%).
Infringing practices in terms of movies, music and series, however, decreased six points each. The partially illicit consumption of cultural goods online has been reduced in all cases by 4 points in one year and today affects “only” 24% of French Internet users. 2% of these Internet users state that they only consume content illegally.
The french netizens by 2022 almost three-quarters (73%) will have access to a paid subscription, either within their household or by tapping into the accounts of people outside their household. Willingness to pay is also increasing, with an average basket growing by two euros per month. Each French would spend an average of 21 euros per month on dematerialized cultural goods. This average, however, includes users who only use free services. Eliminating this type of consumer, the average basket amounts to 32 euros per month.
Source: BFM TV
