Klieg Lights Shine the Way

February 27th, 2008

According to a survey of viewers published by eMarketer, 44% of people who watched less TV in 2007 did so because they were watching video online instead (and only 9% were streaming TV shows). I am one of these people, which is really Comcast’s fault for not offering channels a la carte and forcing me into a $70 bundle that I don’t want.

TV executives are understandably worried that this chunk of the market will cut into their ad revenue, which topped $76 billion in 2007 in the U.S. according to Podslug. The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) referred to TV executives as “Deer caught in klieg lights” by YouTube’s announcement last week of in-video text ads and clickable sponsored videos appearing alongside regular videos (a “klieg,” for those who not familiar with esoteric movie production terms, is a powerful electric lamp used in filming).

Now to be fair, some are calling YouTube’s offering a bit confusing. But clearly there is now the pressure from brands and advertisers to have the dollars follow the audience and content. We’ve all been writing about it for some time – our post is here. Once again, we’re left to speculate about how much and how fast.

Jerry Yang of Yahoo predicts that total online ad revenue will surpass television within five years. That doesn’t sound so sweeping, as current online ad spend is $21B, according to CNET, or 27% of television ad spend. We’re looking for someone to throw down the gauntlet and predict when online video ad spend will top television ad spend, or better yet, when it will be too difficult to distinguish which is which.

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Entry Filed under: New Media/Old Media