• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, April 3, 2007

In an online world dominated by the 1- to-3-minute clip, opportunity awaits those who can turn consumers on to long-form video. That's because the majority of consumers still haven't streamed or downloaded TV shows or movies, but many say they would, according to new research from marketing research consultancy Ipsos Insight.

By the end of last year, just 26% of all consumers who view streaming video had watched the full-length TV shows offered by networks like ABC, CBS, and NBC. Worse still, only 15% had streamed a whole movie online.

By contrast, 75% of all digital video streamers have viewed short news or sports clips, while two thirds--67%--have streamed amateur or homemade video clips.

A full 43%, however, expressed interest in downloading full-length movies in the near future, while 38% expressed interest in full-length TV show downloads.

The most common barriers to downloading are users' unwillingness to pay for content, as well as a perceived difficulty or inability to burn these files onto DVD, according to Brian Cruikshank, executive vice president of Ipsos Insight's Technology & Communications practice.

"Obviously, with more technology coming onto the market facilitating the sharing of video files between PC and TV, some of today's purchase barriers may soon begin to dissipate at some level," he said. "Yet, this also seems to illustrate the virtues inherent with streaming shorter video clips for today's video enthusiasts: easy 24/7 access to preferred content for reasonable fees or free via entirely ad-supported models."

Marketers and media companies are still unsure of consumers' appetites for long-form content and the advertising that comes with it.

NBC Universal President-CEO Jeff Zucker recently illustrated this sentiment while discussing the pending video venture between NBC and News Corp.: "In the last few months, we've learned a lot from our own site," said Zucker. "We've actually been shocked to see consumers sit through a whole show with ads."

The success of the NBC/News Corp. venture will rest in part on its ability to lure views will full-length TV shows and movies. (While nothing is written in stone, the companies have indicated they will offer free TV shows with ads, and sell downloads of available movies.)

Long-form content strategies have varied from network to network. NBC, for example, makes its "Heroes" series available online for a short time before pulling it down. By contrast, consumers can stream entire seasons of some ABC shows at their leisure.

ABC, which reportedly does 3.7 million streams a month, has expressed its satisfaction with the popularity of its free long-form shows online.

At the end of 2006, more than half--58%--of Americans age 12 or older with Internet access had streamed some form of video content online, according to the Ipsos Insight report. That translates to 44% of the overall U.S. population age 12 or older, or approximately 100 million consumers.

"Clearly, the YouTube phenomenon has caught on with Americans," said Cruikshank.

"While streaming video online has clearly emerged as Americans' favorite way to access video online, it also may be blazing a trail for other video formats and acquisition methods in the future," he added.

Among those who stream video online, teens and young adults are the most likely to do so: three in four of all teens ages 12-17 and young adults ages 18-24 in the U.S. had streamed digital video content by the end of last year.

Also, the typical video streamer skews younger, and is more likely to come from a wealthier, better-educated household than non-streamers.