How useful is video, anyway?

With the wildfire success of such sites as YouTube and VideoSift, where any user can upload their own videos of everything from natural disasters to dogs chasing toys, you might wonder if anyone is paying attention to the news. The internet is saturated with video content, despite its drawbacks as the media with the largest file sizes and worst compression distortions.

But take heart! Users are watching more than home movies from their computers.

Quote :

"The OPA study makes it clear that online video viewing has become commonplace and that consumers often go to specific sites directly to watch video," said Pam Horan, OPA vice president of marketing and membership. "The video viewing boom has been propelled by rapidly expanding video content and consumers' increased reliance on the Web for news and entertainment. And while humorous videos seem to get the buzz, it's hard news that is most frequently watched by Web users."

The OPA video study found that 24 percent of Internet users access video at least once a week, while 46 percent watch video at least once a month. News leads the way in frequency of viewing, with 27 percent of online video viewers watching at least once a week, followed closely by funny videos (26 percent watch at least once a week). Online video viewing is very common at home (39 percent of those with home Internet access watch at least once a week) compared to 19% of those who watch at least once a week at work.

Read the press release
Read the full study results (PDF)

So keep posting those videos, because your audience is watching the news over those videos where some kid biffs it on his skateboard. There is enough video content out there for users to be discriminating, and they've chosen news to watch most.