Long-Form Video Comes of Age

The New York Times reports today that audiences are sitting still for, and even seeking out, lengthier videos. Excerpts:

As the Internet becomes a jukebox for every imaginable type of video, producers and advertisers are discovering that users will watch for more than two minutes at a time...

Production companies are now creating 10- and 20-minute shows for the Internet...

A year ago all but one of the top 25 shows on [Blip.TV] clocked in at under five minutes. Now, [its] average video is 14 minutes long... The longest video uploaded in May was 133 minutes long, equivalent to a feature-length film...

Much of the video innovation is coming from people who — empowered by inexpensive editing equipment and virtually no distribution costs — are creating content specifically for an online audience...

“If there’s good storytelling and good production values, people are willing to engage with the content,” said Eric Berger, a senior vice president of Crackle, the Sony video site.

While most of the Times report pertains to entertainment content, its salient points -- regarding Web audiences' longer attention spans, and that medium's unique ability to create video content that doesn't have to be squeezed into a predetermined time slot -- certainly pertain to videojournalism as well.

Newspapers that once issued edicts to constrain video segments to the length of a pop song are now letting pieces run 5 or 10 minutes... or longer.

For a peek at what the future holds, visit KobreGuide's "Got an Hour?" channel.