• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, June 16, 2009

Actually, they seem to contradict some of the data cited earlier at OMMA Video that the online video advertising marketplace is still well under $1 billion.

The report, just released to the press, pegs the “rich media/online video” at market at $2.45 billion in 2009 in the U.S. alone, and $2.468 billion if you throw Canada into a North American estimate.

I’m not sure what the difference is between that and the estimates OMMA Video programming chair Daisy Whitney cited, that online video advertising is only $699 million right now, but it probably has to do with lumping “rich media” into the mix. But the folks at PricewaterhouseCoopers must know what they’re doing. After all, they work with the Interactive Advertising Bureau on the quarterly Internet Advertising Report.

Semantics aside, here’s what the new PwC report finds about online video advertising:

• broadband penetration and increased broadband speeds are making video advertising a feasible option.

• Video streaming of TV shows that contain video ads are facilitating video advertising, as is the popularity of video sites such as Hulu, Joost, Veoh, and YouTube, as well as television network Web-video sites.

• Video advertising rose by 10.8 percent in the United States in 2008 and doubled from a tiny base in Canada. As with search, we expect video advertising to hold up during the economic downturn and to accelerate when the economy recovers.

• We project video advertising spend in North America to grow at an 8.4 percent compound annual rate to $3.5 billion in 2013 from $2.4 billion in 2008. The US will average 8.3 percent compounded annually, and Canada will advance at a 23 percent compound annual rate from a very small base.