British net users now lead the world in downloading American TV shows, according to research by web-tracking company Envisional. Fans eager to see new episodes of shows such as 24, Desperate Housewives and Six Feet Under are illegally downloading episodes hours after they are broadcast in the US.

18% of downloads are from within the UK, with downloads of TV programmes increasing by 150% in the last year. Between 80,000 and 100,000 people in Britain are now estimated to download TV shows. A typical episode of 24 is downloaded by 100,000 people around the world, 20,000 of whom are British. Australians are the second biggest culprits, accounting for 16% of downloads.

Traditionally, British telly addicts have had to wait weeks or months to see US shows. Now however, six million people in the UK have broadband, allowing them to download new episodes very quickly. About 70% of downloaders do so using the file-sharing software BitTorrent.

David Price of Envisional said: “It’s a double whammy for advertisers. First, they are losing eyeballs. Second, the people whose eyeballs they are losing are the demographic they want, young and technologically savvy with high disposable incomes. TV companies must take a leaf out of the record industry’s book, set up legal download sites and bring lawsuits against the worst offenders.”

A trend towards millions of Americans downloading episodes of Richard and Judy and Countdown has not yet been spotted.