A TubeMogul found that more than half of video views are driven by blogs.

To the point, here, in this blog, is a video interview about the study.

Viewing time across all three screens was up.  This indicates not simply more consumption, but more multi-viewing – watching two screens at once such using a laptop while watching TV.  Other key findings include the following:

• Timeshifted TV was up 37.3% to 8 hours and 13 minutes (still small but climbing)
• Watching video on a mobile phone was up 4.9% to 3 hours and 37 minutes
• Teens watched the most mobile video at 6.5 hours each month
• The most watched mobile categories are weather and comedy
• TV still dominates – it account for 99% of viewing.

http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/americans-watching-more-tv-than-ever/

The Hulu vs. Cable argument centers on traffic and videos watched.  But important number is the minutes spent per video – are people spending the time to watch long form on the web?  In minutes per video, viewers watching Hulu content spent an average of 6.7 minutes on each video they watched.  This is a far cry from the shortest TV content (the 20 minute sitcom).

There are certainly many people watching many long form video, but the numbers indicate that short form video still dominates web viewing habits (the overall web average is 2.5 minutes per video, according to comScore.  At the same time, Nielsen’s three screens report shows TV watching at an all time high.  True, people surf when in front of the TV, but that behavior indicates surfing to short form content while long form broadcasts through the TV.

This is of critical importance to marketing and PR professionals as we must execute programs that fit today’s audience.  And what we are seeing is that the PC based web continues to be a short form video medium with TV alive and well when it comes to long form video. 

Sources:

comScore – http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2756

Nielsen Three Screens report – M2 Three Screen Report

(disclosure: the author works with Web video company Dailymotion)

According to Parks Associates, 33% of US households with broadband are interested in  connected set top boxes.  Later this year, awareness and interest may continue growing as connected TVs, no set top box needed, are launched (connect the TV to the router and start using those widgets, streaming video etc).

What’s interesting is that Gen Y, the up and coming generation of information consumers, are interested in the social media features – chat and recommendations both faired well in their interest.  This may go up if, as the new connected TVs are rolled out, these types of widgets are well executed. 

What this all means is that instead of Web video and social media killing TV, TV stands to continue to be major means of communicating with major audiences.  As often happens, changes in the media ecosystem tend to be an evolution and not a revolution.  Communicate with people through TV will not die away but will evolve.

The chart at the right is most notable in that viewers are shifting to watch videos across all platforms.  I believe this has several implications for those looking to communicate to viewers across platforms.

1. There will be an increase in video types between videos that are created to be platform agnostic and those that are created for specific platforms.  

2. Lean-back vs. lean-forward – It’s not that TV is losing, it’s that everyone is winning.   Don’t fall for the zero-sum game analysis that TV is losing to the Web.  It is losing share but people will always watch TV.  In fact, there are more products coming out everyday that bring video from sites like Dailymotion (disclosure: a client) to the TV.  See point 1 – it will more be about what video is best to watch leaning forward on a PC vs. leaning back on a TV…or a phone…or a media player.

3. Portable media players and phones are both growing as platforms.  Look for better growth as more devices push the video functionality and more content is delivered that best fits these small screens.  For example, an ESPN Mobile that is all up to date clips for sports fanatics would be better than just a 2 inch version of the TV channel.

A study by Simmons found that consumers are 47% more engaged by online TV viewing than by watching on a TV set.  You can read the article to learn more about the study itself but I think the article needs some context as it is comparing apples to oranges – in other words, you can’t compare television to online video…at least just yet.  When I watch an ad on Hulu it’s one ad per show, one break, and often has high relevance to the content I’m watching.    When I watch an ad on Heavy, Break.com or Dailymotion (disclosure: Dailymotion is a client), fewer ads are often directly relevant to the content, increasing engagement.  In other words, TV has lousy engagement but broad reach.  Video can have terrific engagement, but lousy reach. 

However, this is all likely to change.  Online video can afford the experimentation at this early growth stage.  Television, being a more mature and far broader audience medium (as of today) has to be more conservative – mistakes due to experimentation made on TV will be of a far larger scale than mistakes online.

At some point, the lessons learned online make their way to television due to innovation in technology and advertising formats.  Until then, it’s worth keeping in mind the differences both in their capabilities and uses while also looking at how we may see online lessons make their way to television.

1. Online video is experimenting with the model of fewer ads and messages per video segment.  This means less time to leave for the bathroom and less clutter to dilute message reception.  TV may eventually adopt this too (or return…like the old main sponsor shows).
2. Increased interaction with advertising is also coming online with interactive in-video ads.  This can provide instant interactive marketing especially with video content tied to the marketing content.   Think American Idol but with voting on the screen instead of via cell phone.
3. Increased contextual relevance is already coming online.  Companies like Scanscout match in-video text ads to video content automatically and sponsors match their ads to specific groups of content on sites like Heavy.com and Dailymotion (disclosure: a client).  A contextual approach has been taken on TV advertising for some time but as marketers look to increase not only awareness but engagement through brand communications, increased contextual targeting will become a more precise technology both online.
4. We already see a variety of in-video ad formats online.  Some of this may transfer to TV with Web video or just on traditional shows.  With channel logos and promos already on shows so are brief in-show ticker ads so far away?

All this is about the future, not the present.  While a lot of people watch online video, it’s only a fraction of those watching TV (essentially, everyone).  So if you’re looking to reach those demographics watching online video the above points are critical. 

Otherwise, it’s going to be a bit longer before online video marketing has the same reach as television based marketing.  Of course, at that point we may be watching all that content on our television.

(See the original post at http://www.fortexgroup.com/blog/2007/12/27/higher-consumer-engagement-online-is-the-future-of-television/)