Video producers are wising up to your extended viewing capabilities.

• When web videos were first created, the rule of thumb – due to both technological limitations and the perceived attention span of the audience – was that shorter was always better.
• Today, many creators of Web content, aided by technological advances, are proving that people are perfectly willing to watch longer videos if they’re of good quality.
• The creators of online videos are acting increasingly like television producers, using the low production costs and the watch-whenever flexibility of the Web to distribute the online equivalent of TV shows.

Facts & Figures

• According to comScore, the average Internet user in the United States watches 97 online videos a month.
• An estimated one in four Internet users visits Hulu at least once a month.
• In 2008, 24 of the 25 most popular videos on Blip.tv, a Web series distributor, were shorter than five minutes. Thus far in 2009, the average video is 14 minutes long.

Best Quote

“Historically it has been very much a clip-based experience online. We believe we are moving into a transition period where more of that viewership is going toward long-form video.” – Jon Gibs, Vice President for Media Analytics at Nielsen