Web-viewing catches fire

Video hits take off, soaring 66 percent from year ago

By Jeff Smith, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Veoh.com shows clips from movies and TV.

Blip.tv plays indie shows such as Heathens.

Julia Fontera says she "watches everything."

On the Internet, that is.

Recently, that included a tax form instructional video on YouTube.com and all the previous episodes of the popular TV show Lost on ABC.com.

"I'm a very visual person," Fontera said, adding her eyes glaze over when she reads the fine print of IRS tax instructions.

Such visual experiences are increasingly playing out on the Internet.

The research firm comScore recently reported that "views" of online video in the United States alone hit 10.1 billion in February, a 66 percent increase over the same period a year ago.

YouTube.com, most famous perhaps for its amateur videos, holds a comfortable lead as the dominant brand, cornering about a third of all viewership.

The humorous, six-minute "Evolution of Dance" remains the site's top-rated video, attracting more than 83 million views over the years.

But the viewing habits of Fontera, a 41-year-old Littleton sales manager, show how diversified the market has become.

Just about everyone is in the game now, ranging from traditional media to new sites like Hulu.com, which offers free TV shows and clips.

"Overall, we're still really in the midst of the boom," said Andrew Lipsman, senior analyst for comScore. "What I'm noticing is that video is becoming ubiquitous on just about any (Internet) content site. In the past, there were video-specific sites. More and more, we are going to see this as part of the overall Web experience."

Consumers still watch online video in bursts, with the average duration of a video 2.7 minutes, according to comScore.

James Conyers, of Denver, said that's his habit.

"I'm there for a snippet," said Conyers, 27.

He recently saw someone working on a septic tank.

The work reminded him of a scene from National Lampoon: Christmas Vacation, in which a character played by Randy Quaid, dressed in boxers and a robe, emptied the septic tank of his RV into a storm drain.

"I just had to see that scene," Conyers said. And so he looked it up on YouTube and watched the clip.

But Conyers, an acknowledged political junkie, sometimes watches more than a snippet when, for example, he clicks onto C-Span.com, which covers Capitol Hill and other political events.

Consumers also increasingly are taking advantage of the ability to watch full TV episodes online, for free.

Fontera said she and her husband recently watched the previous four seasons of Lost on ABC.com in a four-week period while her husband was laid up after knee surgery. Now they're hooked.

A high-speed Internet connection is crucial to a good experience: 1.5 megabits a second is pretty much the minimum for streaming video. Some services, such as YouTube, enable a viewer to load, then watch the video.

The print press also is getting into the video business.

Justin Burns, a senior sales executive for Mesa Networks in Colorado Springs, confessed he doesn't view a lot of online video.

But recently, a friend e-mailed him a two-minute video about the end of the season "Ski Jam" party at Arapahoe Basin from the Boulder Daily Camera's online site. Burns was impressed.

"I thought what a great idea for a newspaper," Burns said. The video was part of the paper's Out There Guy video series. The newspaper is owned by E.W. Scripps, which also owns the Rocky Mountain News.

Said Lipsman of comScore: "The news category in general is placing a greater emphasis on video. It's not just TV news, but more and more in the newspaper brands."

One of the challenges of the online video industry has been to "monetize," or make money off the ventures.

And a main criticism by consumers over the years is having to sit through a 15- or even 30-second advertisement before being able to watch a video.

But that's changing, Lipsman said, in part through technology innovation.

"We're starting to see experimentation in new ways to advertise with online video," he said. That includes "fly-over ads" that hover over the bottom of the screen for a few seconds, then fade away.

"You're seeing the ad impression, but it's not interrupting the experience or holding the viewer hostage," he said.

smithje@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5155

In February

72.8 percent of U.S. Internet audience viewed online video.

3.42 billion videos viewed on YouTube.com, an average of 42.6 videos per viewer

539 million videos viewed on MySpace.com, an average of 10.7 videos per viewer

2.7 minutes. The average duration of an online video

75 The average number of videos seen by online viewers

Keeping an eye on the screen

YouTube may have a corner on online videos with a third of the market share, but there are several up-and-comers. Here's a sampling (parental supervision advised):

* Blip.tv Video-sharing site focusing on independently produced shows.

* Dailymotion.com/us France's leading online video provider with a U.S. site. Categories include comedy, politics, travel, Hispanic videos and more.

* Hulu.com Recently launched site featuring videos and TV shows, ranging from excerpts of The Office and Saturday Night Live to full episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

* Spike.com Also features music videos and video games and gadgets. Includes classic music videos of Led Zeppelin, Huey Lewis and others posted by MTV.

* Veoh.com Videos and TV shows. Ranges from full episodes of Survivor and CSI: Miami to clips of 60 Minutes.

* Network news A number of news organizations are aggressively expanding their online videos as well, with Fox, CNN and ABC among the most popular. On ABC.com, for example, one can watch all the previous episodes of Lost.