Video comes in two main versions – professional full-length and short user-generated clips. Full-length web TV, like Hulu and the major broadcast networks, will be the focus of this blog post. According to ComScore, an average of 179 million Americans are watching online video each month.

Hulu and the 5 Major Broadcasters (ABC, CBS, NCB, Fox and the CW)

Hulu led the way in viewership with 19.4 billion minutes in Q4 2010. That’s a lot of streaming. The 5 major broadcast TV sites combined, accounted for 9.7 billion minutes—half of Hulu, but grew much faster at 5x’s Hulu’s year-over-year rate or 82%. Many of the major broadcasters are no longer allowing Hulu to rebroadcast their content so this trend should continue. In total, the combined viewing times increased by 33% versus 2009.

Who’s Watching TV Online?

Seventy-seven percent (77%) of adults have watched a TV show on the Internet rather than on a traditional television, according to a June 2011 AdWeek/Harris Poll. Fifty-one percent (51%) of these people have watched a show online they never saw on traditional TV.

As you’d expect, 18-34 year-olds lead the way in viewership with almost 9 in 10 (88%). But, 35-to-44 year olds are right up there with 84% and 55+ baby boomers have 64% viewership. Audiences are there for the taking but how can brands reach these people?

How Can Advertisers Take Advantage?

There are three major opportunities available to position yourself in this relatively new advertising medium with smaller brands having the ability to get in with large national advertisers for a cool $25,000 (in most cases). The ad units (shown below) include a “branded slate” where the voiceover says that this program is brought to you with limited commercial interruptions. Then the first 15-30 second commercial appears, with several spots showing throughout the episode. Finally, at the end of the episode is a clickable banner ad.

A Nielsen study found that online video ads performed much better than traditional TV ads in several key categories, including: general recall (65% vs. 46%), brand recall (50% vs. 28%), message recall (39% vs. 21%) and likeability (26% vs. 14%). When a campaign runs web and traditional TV in tandem, there was a substantial lift in these numbers.

→ AREA203 Display Team, AREA203 Digital