Consumption of Long-Form Video Grows Faster than Short-Form Content

It isn't yet clear whether long-form video or short-form video poses the bigger demand on mobile and fixed access networks. But both are increasing.

The number of US online video viewers has risen steadily for the past few years and is expected to continue climbing in moderate increments through 2014, according to eMarketer, which suggests that growth will slow from between eight percent and nine percent a year from 2010 through 2012 to about 5.2 percent in 2014, when 77 percent of US Internet users will be watching online video content at least monthly.

Growth in online video viewership was increasing more quickly between 2008 and 2009, by 11.3 percent.

But streaming and downloading of full-length movies increased much more dramatically. According to Ipsos OTX, the percentage of Web users who watched long-form online video more than doubled between September 2008 and Oct 2009.

Such rapid increases in downloading and streaming mean full-length movie—and, by likely extension, TV—content is on a faster growth track than online video viewing as a whole, eMarketer says.

One factor behind the turn toward long-form content is the success of Hulu, which The Nielsen Company ranked second to YouTube in overall video streams viewed in April 2010. But Internet-connected devices in use also will play a part.

In-Stat expects U.S. shipments of Web-enabled devices that support TV applications will increase from 14.6 million this year to 83.4 million by 2014.

The demographics of online video viewing also help to explain why Internet users have gone beyond snack-size clips to adopt full-length TV and movie viewing on the Web. The highest penetration of online video viewing is among users 18 to 24, with 25- to 34-year-olds and teens not far behind. By the middle of this decade, those age groups will be at saturation points of above 90 percent penetration for video consumption.

Not only do these demographics watch online video in massive numbers, but they are also the most receptive to TV content online. Retrevo found that 29 percent of under-25s get all or most of their TV online, compared with eight percent of the video viewing population as a whole.

“If the first iteration of online video was about silly pet tricks on YouTube, the next wave will be about professionally produced full-length content such as TV shows, movies and live sports,” says Paul Verna, eMarketer senior analyst.