The internet has had difficultly in getting advertising to take off, partially as a result of most content being offered for free for many years. However, a study by FreeWheel shows that the model used by television providers for the past several decades is taking hold.
An analysis of 11.3 billion online video views and 6 billion ad views demonstrated that users were willing to sit through commercials during long-form programming. A 22-minute sitcom or 44-minute drama will see 94 percent of users watching during a standard ad break; shorter clips of things like sports highlights and music videos see just 59 percent of users sitting through ads.
“The content with the largest ad loads have the highest completion rate, so it’s fairly clear that consumers are willing to make that compromise,” said JoAnna Abel, the vice president of marketing at FreeWheel. “If you want to watch professionally created, rights-managed content without having to pay a subscription fee, you’re going to have to watch a few ads.”
This lesson is key, since a quarter of users will immediately drop a video if confronted with something like a pre-roll. “It’s a cultural thing. You have people with digital DNA over here with spending on online video, and then you have TV buyers and TV strategists with their GRPs and Nielsen currencies over there,” Abel said. “It will take time for all the artificial barriers to come down, but the [two sides] are definitely learning to cooperate.”
The study also revealed that over 80 percent of mobile video views are on Apple devices. The iPad has particularly been embraced, with ABC and HBO announcing they had developed on-demand apps for the iPad, as have MSOs such as Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Cablevision. “Given the consumer enthusiasm for the platform and the fact that the TV industry is coalescing around it, the iPad is going to be the next third screen,” Abel said.
Source: AdWeek
