Message from Michael - Online Video and Apps - July 14, 2010

Message From Michael                                 

                                                                                                                        July 14, 2010                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

      SEND IN THE CLOWNS

      DON’T BOTHER, THEY’RE HERE

      VIDEO MILESTONE

      TESS, JOE AND MARIAH

      SEND IN D’ARTAGNAN

      COCKTAIL CHATTER

 

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      SEND IN THE CLOWNS:  And American Internet users have, making humorous videos the top choice for online video viewing.  According to a report on the state of online video by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, Comedy has displaced News as the number one viewing choice.  Both showed increases since the last time the survey was taken in 2007, but then again, just about all online video viewing has increased significantly in that time.  Maybe it says something about the American consumers’ mindset now, as opposed to then, but the comedy viewing showed a huge jump in that time.  Half of the Adult Internet Users (50%) say they watch humorous or comedy video online compared to just under a third (31%) the last time.  Less than half (43%) say they watch ‘news’ videos now, which is an increase over the last time (37%) but not nearly so significantly.  Somewhat, but not too surprisingly, nearly all (93%) of the 18-29 crowd say they watched humor videos.  Interestingly the highest percentage of online video news viewing occurred in the 30 to 49 age group (74%). 

Educational video viewing is also up significantly (from 22% to 38%).  Regular Message readers will remember a previous report in which “how to” video websites were a growing phenomenon.  As a side note, website 5Min.com which has videos on such topics as how to choose the right bikini and how to give your cat insulin injections just announced that they will be getting into the news business.  And as a side note to the side note, AOL and other aggregation services have announced they will be hiring ‘hundreds’ of journalists to generate original content.  Anyway, back to the report… viewing of movies and TV shows online doubled (from 16% to 32%) as did viewing of political videos (15% to 30%).  Also, interestingly, political video viewing was not dominated by any demographic, meaning all ages watched roughly equally.  About the only categories that didn’t grow significantly were online commercials (13% to 15%) and Adult Videos which only a small percentage of those surveyed (7%) admitted watching.  At this point, I can hear you all saying, “yeah, right.”  And, yes, that does raise questions about the validity of survey responses.

As always with numbers, it’s a matter of perspective.  For example, the report makes the point that seven out of ten Adult Internet Users either watched or downloaded video.  More interesting (to me, at least) is when you put it this way -- five times as many people watched or downloaded video (69%) as posted video (14%).  Nevertheless it should still be noted that the percentage of people posting video has also nearly doubled in that time, from the eight percent who said they posted videos the last time the survey was taken.  (Also, as a matter of perspective, the report references three different universes of people – total adults in the U.S.; total adults using the Internet in the U.S.; and total adults who are watching video while using the Internet in the U.S.)  The percentage of adult internet users (AIU’s) who paid to watch videos online, while small, nearly doubled from 4% to 7%.  Oddly, though, on the flip side of that, the percentage of AIU’s who connected their computers to their TV’s to watch video dropped nearly in half, from 8% in 2007 to 5% in the latest survey which covers 2009.

      DON’T BOTHER, THEY’RE HERE:  Well, the news ones are anyway.  In addition to the Pew report, the monthly report on online video viewing by comScore as cited by Beet.tv, shows that monthly news video ‘consumption’ has doubled year to year.  In May of last year there were 277 Million video views ascribed to news or information sources.  This past May that number was 565 Million.  The report says the percentage of Internet users viewing online video news has increased to 34.2% this past May, up from 31.8% last May.  Okay, the numbers and the percentages don’t quite match up.  The explanation may be that there are more people watching, and they are watching more videos.  In fact, the comScore May report cites a milestone of sorts:  Facebook viewers passed the threshold of 100 videos viewed per viewer for the first time.  One of the biggest beneficiaries of the online video news viewing is the Associated Press.  In January of last year, the AP’s YouTube Channel had 77 Million views.  If you visit the site now, you will see they are just under the Half Billion mark at 447 Million views.

      SECOND VIDEO MILESTONE:  In addition to the Facebook 100 video viewing milestone, the May comScore report also noted that online video newcomer Vevo has moved into third place in terms of unique viewers (45,579,000) ahead of Hulu (43,451,000) and even Facebook (45,492,000).  The service was only launched, officially, in December of last year and has grown that fast that quickly.  Of course, this is no upstart.  It is owned by Sony Music Entertainment Universal Music Group which represents three of the top four music labels – Universal, Sony and EMI.  And the fourth, Warner Music Group is considering joining.  Wikipedia notes that Vevo bills itself as the Hulu of music videos.  It should be noted that Hulu still holds the number two spot in terms of actual videos with its roughly 1.2 Billion video views, well ahead of Vevo’s 430 Million but well behind Google/Yahoo’s 14.6 Billion.  Interestingly Vevo’s other owner is the Abu Dhabi Media Company which, yes, is owned by the government of Abu Dhabi.

      TESS, JOE AND MARIAH:  They’re the three forces of nature, according to the song from Paint Your Wagon.  The three forces of the Internet are Social Networking, Mobile and…. Apps.  Yes, Apps.  And, just like rain, fire and wind, the three are inter-connected.  (Okay, I know this is a stretch, but it gets a little difficult being creative at 4 o’clock in the morning sometimes.)  A report by investment firm Morgan Stanley’s chief Internet analyst predicts that “the Mobile Internet will soon overtake the Fixed Internet.”   Analyst Mary Meeker says it is the interaction between the two (mobile and social networking) that is driving the rapid growth of each.  Meeker says that while the Internet in general will continue its rapid growth, at some point in 2014, the Mobile side will pass the Fixed side when both reach about 1.6 Billion users.  Tech website Gigaom, along with others, notes that the prediction of growth in mobile and social networking is hardly earth shattering, but that the numbers are.  Meanwhile comScore’s Mobilens service which reports trends in the mobile phone business says 234 Million Americans aged 13 and over used mobile devices of one sort or another.  Keep in mind the total U.S. population is just under 310 Million.  And of those mobile devices, nearly a fourth (49.1 Million) are smart phones.  That’s up 8.1% from just February. 

An analysis of the comScore numbers by tech website VisInsight says that growth in smart phones increased the phone usage rate of social networking (240%), News (124%), bank accounts (113%) and weather (111%).  But here’s where the analysis gets real interesting.  In terms of penetration, 78% of smart phone users accessed their browser in April, 2010, while 80% of smart phone users accessed applications.  Several other reports have noted the startling growth in the use of Apps.  And here’s where it gets even more real interesting.  The Economist magazine makes the case that Apps may be the future of News.  The magazine makes the case that if the iPad and other tablet devices are going to “save magazines and newspapers from oblivion,” it will be through Apps.  The writers argue that publication online gets lost in the plethora of online choices, while an App makes a publication stand out because it directs the user to the source.  Also, while online publication is free, users have to pay for Apps.  The question still to be resolved is will people pay for the convenience of subscribing through Apps when they can get some version of the same thing online for free.  As the cliché goes… stay tuned.  More on this in forthcoming issues of the Message. 

      SEND IN D’ARTAGNAN:  The famous battle cry of the Three Musketeers was One For All and All For One.  Now it’s being used… sort of… as a battle cry for the First Amendment.  Various groups ranging from the Knight Foundation, the McCormick Foundation, First Amendment Center and The Newseum have created a website http://1forall.us and a related campaign to try and raise interest in, and awareness of, The First Amendment and its five freedoms.  Okay, okay, quick quiz – name them.  The program is providing educational materials to schools and is running a contest on YouTube for grants.  As a coincidental side note to this, and worth noting here even though it has already received a lot of coverage, the Supreme Court ordered the Second Circuit Court of Appeals to review its decision on the FCC punishment for fleeting expletives which it did, ruling that it violated The First Amendment. (Confession time – I didn’t name all five.) 

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