A new study by Yahoo! measures the changes in the online video market over the past two years, including types of videos viewed, popular viewing times, video sharing, and the receptivity to advertisements within videos.
The general numbers show significant growth in the market – more than half (57%) of users now watch online video on any given day, a 33% increase from 2009. The types of video being viewed are changing as well: full-length movies (8%) and TV shows (18%) are gaining popularity, while the popularity of short video clips has declined slightly, dropping from 84% in 2009 to 74% of total videos viewed in 2011.
Looked at by service, the viewership grew significantly for Netflix (200%) and Hulu (67%) since 2009.
The popular times for online video viewing are also evolving. Viewing during the 9-5 business day has decreased, while video watching between 6pm and 9pm has grown more than 30 percentage points over the last two years.
According to the study, receptivity to online video ads is clearly correlated to the quality of the advertising content. The more professional the ad content, the higher the ad recall and information retention was for brands.
In terms of video sharing, only 26% of consumers reported sharing a video in the past 24 hours, a significant drop from the 34% who did so in 2009. The sharing demographic has changed as well, with 72% of sharing coming from viewers ages 25-54 (up from 64% in 2009) – this shift marks an older demographic moving into the sharing space.
Yahoo!’s study comes from a May 2011 survey of more than 4,100 online video viewers about their last viewing experience in the previous 24 hours.
