March 01, 2011

The Usual Nonsense

In a piece several weeks ago in Adweek called A Critical Turning Point for Online Video Advertising, a young lady who works for a "digital ad fulfillment company" laments...
"Consumer behavior has shifted, yet online video represents only 7% of the ad market"
She further goes on to say...
"In 2010, it became overwhelmingly evident that online video sites had found the right formula for  delivering content in a way that earns and retains audiences. For example, if you look at 2010 comScore numbers, the amount of time American audiences spent watching video for the major live video publishers...has grown 648 percent to more than 1.4 billion minutes year over year. Short- and long-form content achieved similar success; time spent watching YouTube and Hulu increased by 68 percent and 75 percent, respectively, over the same time period."
As usual, promoters of online media give inadequate perspective and tell only part of the story. 

The rest of the story is this. According to Nielsen's Three Screen Report from Q1 2010, video watchers spend 2% of their video-watching time with online video. They watch video on traditional TV 98% of the time -- 9505 minutes a month on TV and 190 minutes a month on line.

If, as the article claims, online video ad sales represent 7% of "the entire ad market" (which I am officially skeptical about) it is way outperforming its reasonable share. If it represents 7% of video ad sales (which I am also skeptical of) it is still outperforming its rightful share by 350%.

So what's the problem?

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