Today's Top Stories In 2012, watching online video became more than just a hobby for cutting-edge Internet enthusiasts, found a survey performed by the Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG) studying the "trends and behaviors" of 1,152 video consumers in the United States.  | Image source: Cisco blogs | Among the study's findings, "70 percent of U.S. broadband users are watching professionally produced Internet video every week with an average viewing time of more than 100 minutes per week," Chris Osika, senior director, U.S. Service Provider at IBSG, said in a blog. Of course, that's the mainstream audience. The more cutting edge group of 18- to 24-year-olds came in at 94 percent. "Overall, streaming video is ahead of downloading and about even with DVDs and Blu-ray discs," Osika continued. Broadcast television, still more easily accessible than online video, still rules the roost, but the report noted it's probably losing ground since about 48 percent of consumers increased their streaming of "professionally produced video content" in the past two years. Average Internet viewing of professionally produced content, both streamed and downloaded, consumed 13.8 percent of viewing time, the study revealed. Online video continues to provide the attraction of something for nothing, as free and ad supported sites such as TV network Web sites and Hulu brought in more than 40 percent of the viewers, while a for-fee play like Hulu Plus grabbed only 9 percent. Possibly the most important trend of the study was the least surprising. "More consumers have increased their consumption of Internet video on the tablet in the last two years than on any other video-capable device," Osika wrote. "Consumers who favor the integrated experience--merging television and the Internet via a set-top boxes--spend the most time watching Web video." For more:
- Cisco offered this blog by Chris Osika
- the blog highlights this report Related articles:
Tablets, smartphones to push wireline networks to 'absolute limits'
Hulu Plus hits 3M subscriber mark
Report: OTT fuels cable's ongoing subscriber losses Read more about: Streaming Video
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Consumers may not like them, but advertisements inserted in short-form video content have a better chance of being remembered than those in long form, research from AOL suggests. The study conducted by Qualvu for AOL contradicted earlier research with its insights on how consumers perceive ads within online video content. "Short-form produced a 25 percent higher brand recall and a 42 percent higher purchase intent for the featured product or service," according to one finding called out in an AOL press release. Part of the reason for the success of short-form video ads versus long-form is just consumer behavior. The research found that long-form ads were seen as interruptive so viewers generally ignored them completely by walking away or doing something else while they were on, demonstrating the same "annoyance behavior" that happens when viewers watch TV without a DVR, the news release said. Not surprisingly, the research also said consumers would like more humorous ads and 67 percent are willing to answer a question if it makes the ad more personal and enjoyable. Finally, in an observation that demonstrates the changing online video space, the research said "consumers understand the exchange of free content for advertising" but, unlike with "free" television, they "want to make sure their time tradeoff of watching ads also benefits them." This new demand, a result no doubt of the interactive nature of the Internet, leads to coupons, contents and links as the "most positive forms of engagement," the report concluded. "Consumption habits are evolving rapidly and we're seeing consumers display many of the same ad avoidance tendencies online than they do with TV," Ran Harnevo, senior vice president of The AOL On Network, said in the press release. For more:
- AOL issues this press release Related articles:
Online video will take 'significant market share' away from traditional broadcast in 2013
Time Inc. centralizes digital video business Read more about: short-form content
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As the holiday season winds down and consumers begin using yet another batch of video-enabled devices, the world's wireline networks will be pushed even closer to their finite edge, new research from Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) Bell Labs says. "By 2020 consumers in the United States alone will access seven hours of video each day--as opposed to 4.8 hours today--and will increasingly consume the additional video on tablets, both at home and on the go," an ALU news release said. Additionally, 70 percent of these same consumers will switch their viewing from broadcast to video-on-demand, as opposed to 33 percent who follow this trend today, the research noted. While this might seem like bad news for service providers who will see the limits of their networks stretched like shirts after a holiday dinner, it's good news for a vendor like Alcatel-Lucent. And, said Marcus Weldon, Alcatel-Lucent's CTO, it doesn't necessarily have to be bad news for anyone. "Delivery of video from the cloud and from content delivery networks to tablets, TVs and smartphones--with guaranteed quality--presents an exciting new revenue opportunity for communications service providers, but only if they are prepared to take advantage of it," Weldon cautioned in the news release. "Left unmanaged, the rapid growth in video traffic can turn into a deluge and spell disaster." Weldon said the Bell Labs research indicates that the IP edge of both wireline and wireless networks "offers the greatest opportunity to improve network performance [and] presents the greatest source of risk if not managed appropriately." The research also pointed out that it is not only the new devices which will impact video traffic but also the increased adoption of new ways of viewing that content--such as HD VOD--that will cause peak hour traffic at the edge of IP networks to growth 2.5 times faster than the amount of traffic on broadband connections reaching the homes. "This challenge will need to be addressed comprehensively if communications service providers are to maintain their ability to deliver high quality residential multimedia services to customers," the news release concluded. For more:
- Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs issued this press release Related articles:
Alcatel-Lucent panelists see online video as bonus, not threat
Rumor mill: AT&T gears up to order 100,000 small cells Read more about: Bell Labs
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Hulu announced it will close 2012 with more than 3 million paying Hulu Plus subscribers, a huge coup for the company that also offers a version of the same service, albeit with less content, for free. In a Hulu blog, Jason Kilar, CEO of the company, also announced the company would finish the year with $695 million in revenue, a more than 65 percent increase over 2011. The online video streaming service, which exited beta testing and launched in November 2010, has managed to hit the 3 million subscriber mark despite stiff competition from other streaming services like Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX), Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) Prime and HBO Go. "We're so thankful to our customers and for the trust they place in us each day," wrote Kilar, adding Hulu is "doubly fortunate in that we are at the crest of two massive waves that we believe will persist for the long term: the rise of online video advertising and the rise of online video subscription services." The Verge noted some of Hulu's recent increase in subscribers can be attributed to its deployment on the Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) TV and Wii U as well as a 40 percent increase in the amount of content available on the site. Mashable, on the other hand, examined the business side of Hulu by noting that, although Kilar hadn't specified what contributed to the company's revenue accumulation, "the suggestion is that this increase is due both to the growing number of subscribers and the company's growing number of advertising partnerships." According to the story, Hulu ran ads from more than 1,000 advertisers this year. For more:
- check out Kilar's blog post
- see the story in The Verge
- read the Mashable story Related articles:
Hulu bulks up on CBS content in non-exclusive, multi-year deal
Hulu viewership declines in visitors and viewing hours
Hulu partners buy out Providence stake for estimated $200M Read more about: Wii, Apple Tv
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Online media center in the cloud company Plizy received an early holiday gift when Atlas Venture poured $4 million into its coffers as part of a Series A round of funding. According to a Plizy press release, the new round of funding allows the company to focus on "expanding its audience, aggregating more content from providers such as Cinemax, Snagfilm and Starz, and build out its offerings across multiple platforms, specifically Android and iOS." The Plizy application lets users find relevant online videos based on an individual interest graph. It was first launched in May 2011 and last month added version 2.0 with a new website and iPad app helping users find videos and TV shows along with offering content discovery and sharing with deeper personalization, the company said. "As video content is fragmented across many sites there is no easy way for consumers to get access to the content they want," Jonathan Benassaya, Plizy's founder-CEO, said in the news release. "Plizy offers a unique service for consumers to seamlessly search, organize, watch and share any movie, TV show or video online." In addition to the funding, PayPal President David Marcus and Fred Destin, a partner in the technology group at Atlas Venture, have both been named to Plizy's board of directors. Destin will be aboard to watch how the money is spent, although a quote provided in the news release indicates he will also take a proactive role in the company. "Video is both extremely exciting from a content standpoint and completely broken from a user perspective," Destin said in the statement. "We're going to solve that with Plizy by centralizing all content in one place for easy viewing and discovery on any device." For more:
- Plizy issued this press release Related articles:
Third wave of UC will incorporate social media, predict Gartner analysts
ABI: Pay-TV operators have hard time working with new breed of connected devices Read more about: cloud, online video
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