Internet video traffic is a source

As the Internet continues to expand, video is taking hold and is responsible for the most recent explosion in online traffic. Whether it’s an online news website like MSN, a sports website like ESPN, or just an email from your friends, video is a likely candidate for viewing content online. It’s hardly considered fun anymore unless there’s some kind of video involved in your online experience.

Many of you have probably heard of the YouTube.com website, it is a place for people to interact with videos in new ways by sharing, commenting and watching videos. YouTube originally started as a personal video sharing service in February 2005 and has grown into an entertainment destination with people watching more than 70 million videos on the site daily. Anyone can watch videos on YouTube, both on YouTube.com and on the Internet. People can see first-hand accounts of current events, find videos about their hobbies and interests, and discover the quirky and unusual. As more people capture special moments on video, YouTube enables them to become the broadcasters of tomorrow.

This new revolution in the way people can interact online is vastly expanding the ways we communicate and share information with others online. Video is exploding on the internet everywhere we look. Even the emails from our friends and family include videos that someone has posted somewhere on the internet. The most recent controversial topic on the Internet is the so-called video of President Bush suffering a digitally manipulated assassination titled “Death of a President.” UK Channel 4 has produced a film which opens with the assassination of President Bush by an anti-war sniper outside a Chicago hotel. They have used special effects to use the real face of Bush. It appears to be a surprisingly real movie, and it understandably causes outrage among many Americans.

The Death of a President uses digital tricks, stock footage, and actors. This drama, which recreates the national paranoia after the murder, will be screened this month at the Toronto Film Festival. Channel 4 hopes to sell the film to US broadcasters but even they say that’s impossible. So wait until it hits YouTube. At the moment, all we have is the image of the scene and the initial news broadcast by NBC.

The number of Internet users who watch online video grew an impressive 18 percent between October 2005 and March 2006. That’s according to comScore’s first analysis of the online video-viewing habits of Internet users. USA, extracted from its new Video Metrix service.
In March, US Internet users initiated a total of 3.7 billion streams of video content; and watched an average of 100 minutes of video content each during the month, up from 85 minutes in October.

Men initiated 52 percent of those flows, women 48 percent; divide the genera along more or less equal lines. But men spent much more time with content, averaging two hours of viewing time during the month, compared to twenty-four hours for women. Not surprisingly, men ages 18-34 were the most engrossed with online video, averaging 140 minutes of video consumption.

But while certain demographic sets consume more video than others, the report’s biggest surprise is that people of all ages and lifestyles are eating it up, according to Erin Hunter, executive vice president of media and entertainment at comsCore.

“There is age bias, but there is no group that is not doing it,” he said. “It’s not just college kids. It’s also the oldest demographic, and clearly both men and women. In terms of content, we watch entertainment, sports, and news, all with pretty high viewership rates.”

So, as we can see, the Internet is taking shape in a whole new light. Video is becoming a reality and has enabled millions of people to post video content online. What’s next? Will we be able to form our own online TV stations with streaming media? Instead of writing a blog, can you watch me in the comfort of my own home talk about the latest and greatest e-commerce related topics? I hope so and it looks like the internet is definitely heading this way. With the birth of reality TV a few years ago and the recent rush of bloggers everywhere, it seems like this would be the perfect mix: Internet reality stations, created by people just like you and me.