Monday, August 30, 2010

The Changing Trends of Video Streams

We know that online video consumption continues to show huge growth. According to Nielsen, there were 11 billion video streams watched by 139 million unique users in a single month in the U.S. in 2009 which represents growth of 24.8% and 11.3% respectively compared to the same month during the previous year.

In 2010, it seems that the TV industry in the United States is reaching a tentative consensus about how to bring more premium content online in a manner that does not overly destabilize current business models. By bringing your rights as a cable or satellite television subscriber with you into the online world, you are going to be able to consume more television content online than ever before. There are many unanswered questions, many competing agendas, and lots of ways for this initiative to fail to live up to its full potential, but it is an interesting and important step toward the future of online video.

Live video streaming is another important trend. Specific events with specialized audiences hog this space. Typically the largest user base for these services seem to be live streams that typically have less than 1000 viewers. Of course there are certain mega events that command a larger audience.

Mobile video seems to be another big story, especially in Asia where superfast mobile internet and services that exploit this facility are setting a new trend. A small portion of the video sharing pie does go to sites that cater to more specialized needs such as that of companies that need to put up large product description videos.

The latest trend analysis shows that bloggers who embed YouTube links tend to be male and young. The most active group of YouTube users is between 25 and 35 years old and bloggers who embed YouTube videos are mostly male (58%).

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