I am a HUGE media consumer, trendsetter, and generally on the bleeding edge of entertainment in my group of friends. I am their EXACT target, they just don't know how to market to me. I am the one telling my friends about new movies and tech, making sure they see what is good. I would without a doubt spend much MUCH more money then your average consumer if they made it available at reasonable speeds in a DRM-free format. (xVid, MP4, Mkv) I want to pay, and support the artists, and 'own' the material to move around on my own computers. The studios however won't let me unless I purchase physical content and do the rips myself. So most of the time I only up getting the blu-ray months down the road if it's something special. The only person who 'wins' in this situation is me, and I wish this weren't the case.
Maybe what they think of as "market rate" isn't justified by any fundamentals, and will continue to decline as people become more aware of the alternatives? Especially if people find illegal/free downloads via bittorrent to be more convenient than the legally available services.