Thursday, January 19, 2012

"Online Video's Manifest Destiny"

  In a post to the Online Video Insider blog, Rob Manoff uses the phrase "manifest destiny" to talk about some recent projections about the size and growth of the online video market.  It's no secret that online video, as a market, is booming.
  Part of that is the continued diffusion of the Internet. Analysts from the Royal Pingdom firm in the UK found that there are around 2.1 billion Internet users globally (roughly one-third of all the people in the world), browsing some 555 million websites.  They also indicated that there were more than 1 trillion YouTube video plays in 2011, an average of 140 for every person on the planet (and more than 400 for every Internet user).  And YouTube accounts for about 45% of the online video viewing, so double that figure again for total plays of online video.
  In the U.S., numbers suggest more than 158 million Internet users watch at least one online video a month.  But the average is much greater - numbers from last October suggested U.S. online video users watched an average of almost 290 videos that month. Predictions are that the number of regular online video users will swell to around 200 million by 2015.  And the advertising industry's taking note - spending on online video advertising reached $2.16 billion in 2011, and is expected to more than triple by 2015, reaching $7.11 billion.
  Manoff suggests that the driving force behind this growth is the wider use and adoption of online video by websites.  He suggests that online video will soon become an integral part of every website, large, small, commercial, noncommercial, and that online publishers need to develop a strategy for handling online video.  He provides a short checklist of questions for publishers and site owners to consider in developing their individual strategy for online video:
Q. How can I optimize the use of video on my site?
Q. Do I build or license my own video player?
Q. How can I ensure my video will also work on the mobile Web?
Q. Should I sell my own advertising or utilize advertising networks?
Q. If I do utilize third parties, do I work with just one, or all of them?
Q. Do I create my own content or license content from others?
  Whatever strategy emerges, it suggests a growing market for providers of online video content, or for video content owners to consider putting their content online.  For a lot of sites, the strategy will be licensing videos, or contracting for video creation and video distribution services, expanding those markets and opportunities.

Sources:  Online Video's Manifest DestinyOnline Video Insider
What Happened on the Internet in 2011?PC Magazine

2 comments:

  1. The December numbers from comScore are out, showing increases from the October 2011 numbers in the post above. Total online video views passed 43 billion for December, and online video ads accounted for 14% of those (but only 1.2% of all minutes viewed). Time spent viewing also increased to an average of 23.2 hours (up 10% from October).
    On the other hand, the total U.S. video viewing audience declined slightly, to 182 million.

    Source - Online Video Views Skyrocket, But Overall Viewership Dips, Online Media Daily
    http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/166009/online-video-views-skyrocket-but-overall-viewersh.html?edition=42356

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  2. That’s an interesting point. With these set of questions, publishers and site owners will be able to study how they can help their clients maximize the medium, and business owners will have a criteria on choosing a video marketer. Also, that checklist will help to determine the areas that need improvement in terms of online marketing.

    (Rose Ector)

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