A new online video index and quarterly research report (from video serving platform Brightcove and online video analysts TubeMogul), reveals some interesting trends and growth patterns for the online video industry. It’s not relevant for everyone, but it’s useful benchmarking for anyone interested in working with video online.

Amongst the Key Findings from the Q1 2010 Report:

Growth Trends

• Broadcast networks and pure-play Web media properties represent the fastest growing sectors for online video streams.
• Newspaper and magazine publishers have the greatest number of video players across online media properties.
• Newspaper publishers show the most growth in video production for online properties, followed by broadcast networks and pure-play Web media brands.

Engagement

• Online video content from broadcast networks attracts the most viewing time per video.
• Newspaper and magazine publishers garner the highest online video viewing completion rates.
• Consumers in the U.S. average more minutes of video watched per stream from broadcast networks and newspaper publishers, compared to their European counterparts who average more minutes per stream from magazine publishers and music labels.

Discovery

• Google generates the highest volume of referral traffic to online video content, followed by Yahoo!, Bing and Facebook.
• Compared to search engines and other social media sites, Twitter referrals generate the highest level of consumer engagement for online video content from broadcast networks, magazine publishers and music labels.
• Newspaper publishers see the highest level of engagement from viewers who find their content via Yahoo!.

Formats & Strategy

• In-stream video advertising is the dominant ad format followed by overlays, sponsorships, companions and player skins.
• Despite experimentation with other ad formats, 35 percent of survey respondents said in-stream video advertising produced the most revenue for their media business compared to other ad formats.
• For in-stream advertising, respondents said the dominant insertion point is pre-roll, followed by post-roll, player load and mid-roll.
• More than half of the survey respondents indicated that they would add sponsorships to their monetization strategy for online video this year.
• Close to 70 percent of respondents said that their media companies sell their own advertising versus using an ad network.
• While just over 10 percent of respondents said that they currently distribute ad-supported video content to mobile devices, more than 50 percent said that they will roll out ad-supported mobile video within the next twelve months.

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Tags: Brightcove, online video, research, statistics, TubeMogul

Newsweek Magazine is on sale now. Not just the newsstand copies but the whole darn thing — publication, trademarks, staff et al. The Washington Post Company, which has owned the title since 1961, admits that the venerable newsweekly has been losing money since 2007; time to move on.

The plight of Newsweek underscores the dilemma facing publishers everywhere: in an era where news itself is free, nearly instantaneous and universally distributed via the wah-wah-wah, can print-based publishers add enough value (both in perception and reality) that consumers will continue to plunk down hard-earned currency for extended analysis and informed commentary?

We think they will, but oh boy, the quality of the content has never been so important. Please note, we don’t necessarily mean intellectually rigorous (although that’d be nice). Sometimes we’re talking about “quality” as applied to quirky trivia, celebrityhood and many of those other facile but fascinating reports. Consumers don’t gobble up magazine articles about Brangelina because they’re so well written — other imperatives are at play (and it would take a whole Dr Phil programme to figure out what those are and how they can be cured).

Newsweek, like its longtime competitor Time Magazine, is all about contextualising the news — explaining WHY something is important, not just that it is so. Any billionaire who picks up the right to publish the esteemed news magazine will need to understand that if the outflow of cash is to be staunched.v

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Tags: for sale, Magazines, Newsweek

You’ve probably heard it said that we only use 10% of our brains — with the unspoken assumption being that if we could somehow increase that usage to even just 15%, we’d be supergeniuses.

Alas, that 10% usage claim turns out to be merely a myth. Research by spoilsport Barry L. Beyerstein of the Brain Behavior Laboratory at Vancouver’s Simon Fraser University suggests that the mistaken belief dates back to the pioneering American psychologist, William James, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and was more of a selling point for various self-help works than a serious and verifiable scientific claim.

Apparently, according to the late Professor Beyerstein, all of our brain is in use and needed: observing the effects of head injury reveals that there does not seem to be any area of the brain that can be destroyed by strokes, head trauma, or other manner, without leaving the patient with some kind of functional deficit.

Another myth shattered. Darn.

On the other hand, it is fair to say that most of us do only use 10-20% of the capabilities of the technologies we have available to us. The Canadians recently conducted a research study into what mobile phone facilities we use. The results are regrettable but not surprising:

Use of mobile device features (Total Canada)

• 89% Phone calls
• 56% Clock/alarm
• 52% Text messaging
• 52% Camera
• 40% Calendar/agenda/organizer
• 28% Email
• 19% Emergencies Only
• 18% Instant messaging/Blackberry messenger
• 18% MP3’s /music/ videos
• 18% Picture/ video messaging
• 15% Web browsing
• 14% GPS or mapping services
• 14% Downloading (games, ringtones, etc)
• 13% Search
• 11% Facebook mobile
• 5% Contests/promotions
• 4% Subscriptions/alerts
• 3% Twitter mobile

Source: Delvinia’s 2009-2010 study of Canadian mobile behaviours conducted through AskingCanadians

These findings — which we’re sure represent a universal truth, not an unfortunate deficiency of maple-leafed mobile Mounties — suggest several underlying implications:

1. Those leading-edge early adopters we see at the front of every bell-curve are indeed a very small minority. Not only that, but the widgets and accessories they find so fascinating may NEVER be used by the mass market. So be careful not to bet the farm on new whizzbang technology that’s not thoroughly intuitive and user-friendly.

2. On the other hand, if your products offer slight enhancements on core features that are actually used by most customers, you just might be able to steal market share from your competitors who may offer significantly more advanced technology — but whose benefits on basic features are minimal. Want proof? Look no further than the original iPod or iPhone (not as advanced as their then-rivals, but user-friendly to the max).

3. If it comes down to an engineering choice between small human-friendly improvements and revolutionary big-picture makeovers, insist on (actually DEMAND) validating consumer research before you commit to high-tech solutions that win awards but fail in the marketplace.

4. If you want to impress your colleagues, clients and peers with your technological superiority, simply RTFM (Read The Full Manuals) for some of the stuff that you already use in everyday life. You’ll be amazed at the hidden capabilities of some of the ordinary tools out there — look no further than mastering a few of the features of Microsoft Office and you’ll dazzle your co-workers showing off capabilities that you previously never knew existed!

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Tags: Canada, Mobile, potential, research, usage