• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, October 30, 2009

Standards are beginning to emerge for video. Measurement reporting and tracking will standardize. These are among the signs that video will become part of the mainstream ad budget in 2010.

During the keynote at OMMA Video in Los Angeles Friday, Ross Levinsohn, general partner for Fuse Capital, reminisced about a dinner meeting with executives just four years ago who had hoped "the whole digital thing would just go away." Advertisers are starting to spend money across several platforms, including video. About 10 million people worldwide watched the U2 concert on YouTube Sunday night, he says.

As media consumption continues to change, Levinsohn predicts that 2010 will be the year that video breaks through and becomes part of the mainstream advertising media buy. Supporting the prediction with stats from YouTube, Hulu, eMarketer, Yankee Group and others, he says YouTube streams about 1.2 billion videos per day worldwide. Hulu streams about 488 million monthly video streams. About 26% of the U.S. Internet audience streamed a full-length TV show in August. The average consumer watches about 157 videos per month, he says, citing comScore.

Connected televisions will become the Messiah and push video over the edge. You will have the ability to sit on the couch and tap into any content anywhere in the world. More than 30 million Blu-ray players will be in the market by 2013, as well as 50 million connected televisions, according to the Yankee Group.

While it hasn't happened yet, the money and ad budgets should follow consumers, he says. Today, video remains 4% of the budget; search, 47%; and banner ads, 22, according to eMarketer.

Television is about an $85 billion market -- but, Levinsohn asks, why hasn't the budget shifted? "If you break out television by the type, Internet is the No.2 direct market channel," he says, suggesting that video will become a $16 billion market. "It should pass newspapers shortly."