eMarketer has revised its US online video ad spending projections, forecasting that advertisers will spend $505 million online this year.
While this year’s online video ad projection is quite a drop from the one eMarketer put out in February 2008, which said that advertisers would spend $1.4 billion in 2008, it is important to note that the lowered estimate still represents an increase of 55.9% over 2007 spending.
US online video ad spending is expected to grab only 2% of total internet ad spending and 0.7% of TV ad spending in 2008.
eMarketer projects that nearly 67% of US internet users will view online video ads at least once a month in 2008. By 2013 an estimated 183 million people in the US will watch online videos, a mere 4.9% change compared with the prior year.
David Hallerman, eMarketer senior analyst, said: “Even as video becomes the great growth area for Internet advertising, there’s a major disconnect between the amount of time people spend with short-form video, especially user-generated, and the ad dollars that accompany such video content.
“However, as media companies change their business model, putting more and more professionally created video content online, the audience – and related ad dollars – will increase dramatically.”
Last month, a report from the Nielsen Company found that despite the growing popularity of viewing television content online in the US, most US adults (94%) who subscribe to cable or satellite television services prefer to watch television on traditional TV sets (see US Adults Prefer To Watch TV On Traditional TV Sets).
In June, a Deloitte study revealed that 19% of UK households currently consume online video on a regular basis, up 8% from August 2007 (see 19% Of UK Households Watch Online Video).