Internet News

Online video continues to grow

Demand for rich media content has passed a new milestone in news that may be of interest to digital marketers.

According to figures from marketing intelligence provider comScore, Americans watched 30.99 billion online videos in November 2009. This is the first time the total figure has passed the 30 billion mark. And it means that the potential audience for rich media ad formats such as pre-roll and post-roll is larger than ever before.

Google, owner of YouTube, continues to dominate the sector. Its sites accounted for 12.22 billion viewings, which translates into approximately four out of every ten online videos. The nearest challengers were Hulu with just 923.81 million requests and Viacom with 499.50 million.

Online video by numbers

The study also sheds light on the level of penetration for the medium. It has emerged that 84.8 per cent of all internet users accessed at least one online video in November, but that the average viewer watched a staggering 181.6 videos. Over the course of the month, moreover, the typical viewer watched 12.2 hours of content.

Finally, it appears that consumers are beginning to look beyond short 30-second clips – comScore reports that the average online video was four minutes long. This is good news for digital marketers, since consumers may be more willing to accept ads on extended clips.

Last August, Google decided to expand its flagship ad revenue-sharing scheme, the YouTube Partnership Program. The move has enabled uploaders of one-off viral hits to monetise their online videos for the very first time. After setting up an AdSense account, content owners are now invited to allow Google ads inside their clips in return for a share of the revenue generated.