July 7, 2009
Rise of Web Video, Beyond 2-Minute Clips
New Web habits, aided by the screen-filling video that faster Internet access allows, are now debunking the rule "keep it short", reports The New York Times.
As the Internet becomes a jukebox for every imaginable type of video — from baby videos to “Masterpiece Theater” — producers and advertisers are discovering that users will watch for more than two minutes at a time.
... While online video is not going to replace television anytime soon, it is now decidedly mainstream. About 150 million Internet users in the United States watch about 14.5 billion videos a month, according to the measurement firm comScore, or an average of 97 videos per viewer. Although the Web lacks a standard for video measurement, comScore says average video durations have risen slowly but surely in the past year, to an average of 3.4 minutes in March.
These figures are reflective of the US market. It woud be interesting to compare with Europe and Asia. One of the most popular illegal hosting video sites, Megavideo - one of the 100 most visited websites - cuts viewers off after 72 minutes, suggesting they either wait 50 minutes to continue viewing, or pay for an uninterrupted subscription service.
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