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Monday, March 17, 2008

Online Video Viewing Drops Slightly

"MediaPost reports that the total number of online videos viewed in January was down slightly from the more than 10.1 billion viewed during a record-breaking December 2007, according to the comScore Video Metrix service."

Interesting analysis but perhaps premature to talk about this online viewing drop as a trend just yet. It is reporting January vs December and may be due to a number of factors including how workers tend to be more busy starting a new year than enjoying the Holidays and non-work activities in December. At first blush, I wanted to blame this shift on the writers strike, but that wasn't resolved till the next month. And as Hulu is now out of beta, perhaps March will also show an uptick due to the pr around the launch.

I doubt that online viewing has reached a plateau, but should it be true, I contend that the VOD experience is what will move on-demand viewing back to the big screen. The pc is great for clips, but full episode viewing is best watched on the big screen. If that is the case, it will be evident in watching Hulu and Joost trends vs VOD viewership. And as for the mobility, DVDs will survive if they add options like downloading to portable players from the disc.