New Report Shows Boom in Online Video Produced by Media Organizations

Brightcove and TubeMogul recently issued a research report to "identify key industry trends" that may lift the spirits of media organizations that have been grumbling about the financial state of online news video. (Brightcove is a videoplayer platform; TubeMogul is a video ad platform.)

Here are some of their key findings:

Growth Trends

• Broadcast networks and pure-play Web media properties represent the fastest growing sectors for online video streams.
• Newspaper and magazine publishers have the greatest number of video players across online media properties.
• Newspaper publishers show the most growth in video production for online properties, followed by broadcast networks and pure-play Web media brands.

Engagement

• Online video content from broadcast networks attracts the most viewing time per video.
• Newspaper and magazine publishers garner the highest online video viewing completion rates.
• Consumers in the U.S. average more minutes of video watched per stream from broadcast networks and newspaper publishers, compared to their European counterparts who average more minutes per stream from magazine publishers and music labels.

Discovery

• Google generates the highest volume of referral traffic to online video content, followed by Yahoo!, Bing and Facebook.
• Compared to search engines and other social media sites, Twitter referrals generate the highest level of consumer engagement for online video content from broadcast networks, magazine publishers and music labels.  Newspaper publishers see the highest level of engagement from viewers who find their content via Yahoo!.

Formats & Strategy

• In-stream video advertising is the dominant ad format followed by  overlays, sponsorships, companions and player skins.
• Despite experimentation with other ad formats, 35 percent of survey respondents said in-stream video advertising produced the most revenue for their media business compared to other ad formats.
• For in-stream advertising, respondents said the dominant insertion point is pre-roll, followed by post-roll, player load and mid-roll.
• More than half of the survey respondents indicated that they would add sponsorships to their monetization strategy for online video this year.
• Close to 70 percent of respondents said that their media companies sell their own advertising versus using an ad network.
• While just over 10 percent of respondents said that they currently distribute ad-supported video content to mobile devices, more than 50 percent said that they will roll out ad-supported mobile video within the next twelve months.

Video Stream Trend Data

Broadcast networks and pure-play Web media properties represent strongest growth sectors:

 Broadcast networks and pure-play Web media brands represent the largest volume of online video streams with a combined quarterly run rate that now surpasses 700 million streams.
 Last year, these broadcast networks grew online video streams by 74 percent. During the same period, Web media brands grew online video streams by 165 percent.
 Data from Q1 of 2010 suggests another strong growth year for both media industry verticals. Broadcast networks have started the year doing more than 380 million video streams, which represents a 44 percent increase compared to the same quarter last year. Similarly, Web media brands kicked off 2010 with 326 million video streams, which is an increase of more than 300 percent compared to Q1 of 2009.

Magazine publishers and music labels achieve next highest volume of video streams:

 Magazine publishers have achieved eight consecutive quarters of video stream growth.
 Overall, magazine publishers grew video streams by nearly 100 percent between 2008 and 2009.
 Magazine publishers walked into 2010 doing more than 190 million video streams in the first quarter of the year, which is up 90 percent as compared to Q1 of 2009 when this media vertical did 99 million video streams.

Newspaper sector video streams flat in 2009, but signal growth ahead for 2010:

 As a category, newspaper publishers did nearly 136 million video streams in Q1 of 2010, a similar volume compared to Q1 in 2009.
 Newspaper publishers had only one quarter of stream growth in 2009, but have grown overall by five percent from Q4 of 2009 and Q1 of 2010.


1Q10 Online Video report -

Read the full report here. (PDF)

******
New numbers: Online video makes big gains
By Regina McCombs (Poynter.org)

A recent batch of new research may provide some fresh hope for those who've been discouraged about news video. While the news is best, by far, for broadcast outlets, growth in audience should be good news for all video producers.

New numbers from Brightcove and TubeMogul look promising. Broadcasters who stream from Brightcove have seen a 74 percent increase in traffic the first quarter of this year, while they've posted only 10 percent more material than in the first quarter last year.

Web-only brands do even better, with a startling 300 percent growth in views. Newspaper videos were up 37 percent from the same period last year. Broadcasters get the best news in length of time watched, with users spending an average of 2:53 watching video, compared to 1:41 average time watched at newspaper sites. It's a bit of apples and oranges, however, since the broadcast material includes a lot of much longer non-news content. Newspaper sites had a slight edge in completion of videos, at 41 percent of viewers finishing, compared to 38 percent for broadcasters.

Read more here.

******
Broadcast TV and Web Media Sites Winning in Online Video
By Erick Schonfeld (TechCrunch.com)

You can hardly run into a media site these days that no longer includes online video (even we are getting ready to launch TechCrunch TV). But which kinds of media sites are getting the most views? In a joint report by Brightcove and Tubemogul, the non-YouTube sites seeing the most success with online video are those of the broadcast TV networks and Web-only media brands, followed by magazine sites and music labels. Newspaper sites are lagging when it comes to both total video views and growth....

Obviously, newspaper sites are having a real problem getting their audiences to watch videos. For every 2 billion videos they throw in front of them, only 136 million get viewed (6.8 percent). Whereas broadcast TV sites are getting 380 million views for every 670 million attempts (56.7 percent). Maybe that is because people go to newspaper sites for news and quick hits, and they go to TV sites to watch videos. But even magazine sites are seeing a 12.7 percent hit rate. Again, this could be a time commitment scenario. Most people go to news sites for quick facts and breaking news. But those people who do bother to watch videos on newspaper sites, are slightly more likely to watch them to the end more than on other types of sites. The completion rates for videos on newspaper sites are 41 percent, versus 39 percent for magazine sites, 38 percent for broadcast sites, and 29 percent for music label sites...

Read more here.

Take a Tablet and Call Me in the Morning

Could the Tablet be the cure-all for the journalism biz?

More specifically, will a thin magazine-sized iPhone-like device give online videojournalism the boost it needs?

Bill Gates and Microsoft gave it their all, but failed. Maybe it was the timing.

Amazon's Kindle has caught on with text readers, but lacks visual spark -- not to mention all those cool 99-cent apps.

According to PC World, TechCrunch just released conceptual drawings of the prototype for its Web tablet project, called the CrunchPad (above). The simplified device is a touch-screen tablet designed specifically for Web surfing, video chat, and light e-mail use. Here's a demo:



Alas, TechCrunch is no Apple ... and now the 800-pound gorilla itself is confirming what has long been rumored. According to the Financial Times, "Apple is racing to offer a portable tablet-sized computer in time for the Christmas shopping season, in what the entertainment industry hopes will be a new revolution."

The device (right) is expected to be launched alongside new content deals, including some aimed at stimulating sales of CD-length music, according to people briefed on the project. The touch-sensitive computer will have a screen that may be up to 10 inches diagonally.

It will connect to the internet like the iPod Touch – probably without phone capability but with access to the web, and to Apple’s online stores for software and entertainment.

The entertainment industry is hoping that Apple, which revolutionised the markets for music players and for phones, can do it again. “It’s a portable entertainment device,” said one entertainment executive. “It’s going to be fabulous for watching movies.”

Book publishers have been in talks with Apple and are optimistic about being included in the computer, which could provide an alternative to Amazon’s Kindle, Sony’s Reader and a forthcoming device from Plastic Logic, recently allied with Barnes & Noble.

“It would be a colour, flat-panel TV to the old-fashioned, black and white TV of the Kindle,” one publishing executive said.

Apple does not appear to have briefed film studios, but Hollywood executives said they would be willing to contribute more content than is now available over iTunes.

The machine would reportedly cost around $800.

Surely you can see the implications for newspapers and other media outlets here.

Spokesman-Review multimedia guru Colin Mulvany could, and ruminated at length on his Mastering Multimedia blog:

These touch enabled tablets could seal the deal by forcing print journalism to go mostly digital. [It] makes me wonder if this will be the disruptive technology that sends print newspapers down the black hole for good.

A touch enabled tablet... would allow me to view text, multimedia and video in ways the smart phone struggles with today. I think of the applications of a tablet for photojournalists. Being able to download photos from their cameras to a tablet, then quickly tone, caption and send them back to the newspaper would be great. Having to lug a laptop in the field is true pain. This is a market segment that is only getting started. It has the strong potential to disrupt not only newspapers, but magazines as well.

Consumers, if they embrace these new touch-tablets, will have their news pushed to them at lightning speed. They will be connected to everyone and everything. They will choose how to shape their digital lives by deciding what news feeds and publications to subscribe to.

Where mainstream media outlets have shed their most talented people, those same workers are going to be the ones that will build the new journalism of the future. My guess is that it will be built around these new web tablets and handset devices. Monetizing the content will be foremost on the minds of these new digital publishers. Freed from the cost of presses, ink and newsprint, a new publishing model will develop.

News content is going to change, too. Web tablets are not just text readers, but will be multimedia hubs. Music, video, photos, animation, interactive graphics are going to be what consumers will gravitate to. It will change how journalists tell their stories. For many of today’s journalists, this new paradigm will be the deal breaker. For others, these new opportunities will present unique challenges that will drive the future of digital journalism to new and exciting heights.