In a research on the availability of films online, campaigning organisation Open Rights Group found a dysfunctional marketplace that leaves consumers with the digital equivalent of empty shelves. Evidence points to a when lack of availability, poor pricing and quality issues compared with physical media.

Excluding iTunes, the ORG study found that only 27% of the BAFTA Best Film award-winning films from 1960 to 2011 are available to rent or buy online, with only 29% of the 50 best British films.

Only 6% of the top 50 best British films are on Film4 OD or Virgin Media. A mere 14% are available through a LoveFilm subscription and 4% through pay-per-view on LoveFilm.

Including iTunes, still only 43% of the top 50 British films can be bought or rented online, with the figure at 58% for the BAFTA Best Film award winners. Virtually all the titles are available on DVD.

Availability is better for recent best selling releases, but it is still very patchy. Some 86% of the best-selling films on Amazon.co.uk in August 2011 can be bought on iTunes, but only 63% on blinkbox.

Rental services fare worse - 64% of the films are available to rent on iTunes, 18% are available on Lovefilm pay-per-view, 55% on blinkbox and 41% on Film4 OD and Virgin Media.

As well as problems with availability, prices online do not compare favourably with DVDs: For the best-selling DVDs from August 2011, the average price on Amazon.co.uk was £6.80. For iTunes purchases, of the films available through its service, the average price was £8.88. For blinkbox purchases the price stood at £9.49.

Of the 14 of the 49 best British films available to purchase on iTunes, the average price is £6.56, while for DVDs the average price is £6.63. DVD prices for the BAFTA winning films average at £5.84, whilst on iTunes the average price stands at £6.72. For the 7 of those films available on blinkbox, the average price is £5.70.

The quality of films available online also does not compare well with physical media. Standard definition tends to be just short of DVD quality across the content providers. HD film purchases and rental are available on iTunes only, with 45.5% of the best-selling DVDs from August available to buy (at an average of £11.59) and 40.9% to rent (at an average of £4.49).

A lack of high quality streaming services are clearly partly determined by bandwidth issues. However, the findings point at problems with licensing, rights clearance and distribution arrangements alongside a reluctance from rights owners to sanction broad digital availability.

The Open Rights Group research is meant to bring ammunition to fighting policies aimed at punishing and blocking access to websites supplying illegal film titles. "Consumers have moved online faster than the film industry whose films they want to watch. They are being confronted with the equivalent of empty shelves," says ORG. "It is unsurprising that many people have found ways of discovering and watching films online from unofficial channels. Blocking all the sites that offer non-licensed content in the world - presuming this could be done successfully in practice - would not improve a consumers chances of buying a film online that is not for sale."

Story filed 26.10.11