Is it us, or are there tons of announcements about Web video recently?
MSN and iFilm have teamed up; MSN will deliver iFilm video clips to MSN Video's free streaming entertainment channel. The clips will be refreshed in real time. MSN also inked a deal with Dennis Publishing to offer five video clips a week from Maxim. The video content
will include photos, celebrity interviews, and music reviews.
Viacom's MTV said it will debut "MTV Overdrive," an ad-supported video site with five channels featuring news,
music, reality TV shows, movies, and special highlights on April 25. Video clips on "Overdrive" will be updated four times daily and users won't be able to skip the 15-second spots from
Procter & Gamble, Microsoft, and Sony Pictures Entertainment. No ad skipping!
The New York Times Company's NYTimes.com said it launched in-stream online video advertising to support
its "Movie Minutes" section of movie reviews and other film-related content. Fox Searchlight signed on as the first sponsor of "Movie Minutes" video content; the studio's ads are
featured in pre-roll video. The move to in-stream video is significant because NYTimes.com previously offered advertisers the ability to run video ads within banners.
Web video content
and Web video advertising are helping to drive online ad spending. JupiterResearch estimates that advertiser spending on Web video will jump from $121 million in 2003 to $198 million by year-end 2005.
The Online Publisher's Association reports that more than 25 percent of Internet users said they watch online video at least once a week. The poll, conducted by Frank N. Magid Associates,
of more than 27,000 Web users found that 51 percent of respondents watched online video at least once a month and 27 percent do so weekly; nearly 5 percent of those polled said they watch Internet
video every day.
Notably, the poll found that news clips were the most popular form of Web video, followed by movie trailers and sports. Most surprisingly, more than half of those
surveyed who reported they hadn't accessed online video on the site they were visiting, didn't know the site offered video content! It sounds like better promotion is needed.