New figures released by Apple suggest that demand for its iTunes movie download offerings is fading.

Initial demand for downloaded movies from iTunes was strong, with Apple saying 1.3 million films were downloaded by 2 February of this year. But new figures show that, almost three months afterwards, only around 700,000 additional films have been sold.

Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of iTunes, said yesterday: "More than two million movies have now been downloaded from the iTunes Store.”

The fall may be down to the enduring popularity of illegal downloading, despite actions by the RIAA and MPAA to scare off offenders.

“Downloading is huge,” said Neil Armstrong, products director of broadband supplier Plusnet.

“In the early hours of the morning nearly 100 per cent of network traffic is movie and music downloads.”

Apple recently signed up MGM to distribute some of its back catalogue via the iTunes store.