• USA Today, Monday, March 9, 2009 12 PM

There's a definite opportunity brewing for non-media companies in online video as audiences soar and production and distribution costs fall, writes USA Today's David Leiberman.

"It's a gigantic business," said Jeremy Allaire, CEO of online video services firm Brightcove. "Every single month it's just grown and grown, to the point where a majority of our customers now are not media companies. They are people using the Web to market, communicate, educate and inform." Allaire's customers include organizations like AFL-CIO, Anti-Defamation League, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Archive of American Law Enforcement and The Asia Foundation.

According to Forrester Research, 187 billion videos will be streamed over the Internet in 2009, up 24% from last year. Leiberman says that growth is being spurred by faster Web connections and improvements in video technology. For example, YouTube helped by making Flash the dominate video format on the Web. "A couple of years ago you had to choose between Apple's QuickTime, RealPlayer and Windows Media Player. It made people think too much," says John Engberg, who manages global media and Web development for kitchen and bath firm Kohler. "Now almost 98% of the world has access to Flash."

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