Television is dying

ComScore, the body for internet research and measurement, just released the results from the Video Metrix report for May 2007. The data says that the average American watched more than 2.5 hours of online streaming video during the month that the research project was carried out which is not surprising considering the quality of content on sites like the Google owned Youtube and Heavy. From an India perspective Rediff recently launched iShare (in open beta) and we are watching the average session time spent on Rediff reach for the sky.

It must be said though that there has been a noticeable instance of reverse moderation of contemptuous content. Google obliged Comedy Central Central by removing clips that were doing the rounds on youtube. Another notable removal was the new Harry Potter movie which some user managed to upload in entirety by breaking it into 3 equal parts.

The data and the trend is undeniable, we will increasingly consume media on our internet devices going forward and all that remains to be seen is whether the media barons will come quietly or be dragged into the maelstrom of this new business reality.

My advice is that they advocate the former. This is clearly bigger than them and politics.

Here are some more interesting stats related to these findings:

• 74% U.S. Internet users streamed video online.
• 5 % U.S. Internet users streamed video on YouTube.
• Average video stream duration was 2.5 minutes.
• Average online video viewer consumed 63 video streams, or more than two per day.

Top U.S. Online Streaming Video Properties* by Video Streamers May 2007 Source: comScore Video Metrix
Property	Unique Video Streamers (000)	Video Streamer Penetration (%)
Total Internet	131,915	100.0%
Google Sites	64,945	49.2%
Fox Interactive Media	52,737	40.0%
Yahoo! Sites	35,024	26.6%
Time Warner Network	29,479	22.3%
Microsoft Sites	24,394	18.5%
Viacom Digital	19,356	14.7%
Verizon Communications Corporation	15,030	11.4%
ABC.COM	10,799	8.2%
Disney Online	10,114	7.7%
MLB.COM	7,311	5.5%

*Comscore Rankings based on video content
sites; excludes video server networks

 

~ by koc1978 on July 20, 2007.