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January 10, 2008

Thanks Striking Writers, Online Video Going Up, Up, Up, Up

Duncan Riley

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strike.jpgWe wrote when the US writer’s strike started in November that it was a chance for millions online to bloom. We were right. According to new figures from Nielsen Online some online video sites have doubled their audience since the strike began.

According to Nielsen’s figures, YouTube’s audience was up 18% in the two months after the strike started and Crackle doubled its audience from 1.2 million users to 2.4 million users

A BBC report quoted Nielsen analyst Alex Burmaster “that is greater growth than you would normally see in such a short period and the strike could be a possible factor.”

A new report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project also confirmed a longer trend to online video, finding that:

  • 48% of internet users said they had visited a video-sharing site such as
    YouTube. A year ago, in December 2006, 33% of internet users said they had
    visited such sites. That represents growth of more than 45% year-to-year.
  • 15% of respondents said they had used a video-sharing site “yesterday” – the day
    before they were contacted for our survey. A year ago, 8% had visited such a site
    “yesterday.” Thus, on an average day, the number of users of video sites nearly
    doubled from the end of 2006 to the end of 2007.
  • Sphere It

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 10th, 2008 at 6:42 am and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  1. Bits and Buzz » 2007 Flashbacks

    January 10th, 2008 at 10:35 am

  2. modernfeed.com » Blog Archive » Thanks Striking Writers, Online Video Going Up, Up, Up, Up

    January 10th, 2008 at 10:44 am

Comments

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  1. Daan Jansonius

    January 10th, 2008 at 6:58 am

    I’ts funny - they want more pay because ‘their’ content is distributed online and their strike means more people watch online video.

    The value of online content has risen thanks to the strike - maybe they should get paid extra for content that’s published online, but less for traditional media content due to its decrease in value now everyone watches stuff online.

    Who’s gonna tell them? ;)

  2. anonymouse

    January 10th, 2008 at 7:04 am

    correlation != causation

  3. Claude Rallins

    January 10th, 2008 at 7:28 am

    MEMO: Must put… Payments from online TV sites for Not writing on the table.

  4. GeraldZ

    January 10th, 2008 at 7:30 am

    This is just the start of shifting eyeballs away cable or satellite television. There is so much more entertainment on the internet than you could ever find by channel-zapping through 100+ stations on your television (most of which are commercials anyway). And you’ll actually find QUALITY entertainment which is in fact refreshing. With internet television, television will never be the same.

    http://www.RSSLiveTV.com

  5. anon

    January 10th, 2008 at 7:32 am

    Can any other sites (non-video) confirm if they’ve also seen an unusual notch up in organic traffic during this period? I’m asking as I’ve heard some anecdotal evidence that might suggest so.

  6. ITrush

    January 10th, 2008 at 7:35 am

    Make the strike longer so that it’ll triple its site audience :)

    Nhick
    http://www.itrush.com

  7. micfo.com

    January 10th, 2008 at 7:54 am

    I think the freelancer writers might be also getting good job because of the writer strikes. :)

  8. LiveCrunch

    January 10th, 2008 at 8:04 am

    So all I have to do is, go on strike about some bizzare thing and ill get more blog/site traffic.

    “thats how i see it”

  9. sandy

    January 10th, 2008 at 8:06 am

    maybe someday internet TV will replace traditional TV.

    —
    http://www.bywifi.com — Mobile Transcoding of Videos and Web Pages for Mobile Phone and PDA

  10. Ericson Smith

    January 10th, 2008 at 8:11 am

    This has got to be the most brain dead post yet, that’s just knee-jerk anti-union.

    Sure, its good for all of us, that visits are rising for online views. But we forget that excluding user generated content, lowly writers write many of the great pieces that we all talk about.

    And it just proves their point even more that they need to be paid for online endeavors just as they get paid for traditional media.

    We all want to watch content for free. That would be great. But then who would pay for the servers? The bandwidth? And who produces the content? If we were barraged with ads that paid for all of the video, then don’t the content creaters deserve at least a little scratch?

    Isn’t it only fair?

  11. ketyung

    January 10th, 2008 at 8:19 am

    Their strikes apparently made more people aware of online content now. What a negative effect LOL

  12. Frank Sinton

    January 10th, 2008 at 8:35 am

    Would be interesting to see if traffic to abc.com, nbc.com, etc. increased as well - i.e. are people flocking online to find the same content, or are they actually looking for new content (Internet TV)?

  13. anon

    January 10th, 2008 at 8:36 am

    @12 frank

    totally agree, that’s what I’m thinking.

  14. Carla

    January 10th, 2008 at 8:43 am

    Does anyone even watch TV anymore???

  15. Josiah

    January 10th, 2008 at 8:49 am

    Has anyone else *not* noticed the writers strike like I have?

    I watch some TV (when time allows) and I really don’t see any difference.

    THAT is the real issue here, it’s like when the NHL went on strike. No one cared and now the NHL is hurting for an audience.

    Most of the TV audience that noticed was probably from an older generation that depends on their nightly TV viewing and scripted sitcoms (evening news followed by sitcoms followed by one of the ‘late’ shows). So I guess it /does/ matter as those ‘older’ people still dictate purchasing and politics in this country. *sigh*

    /dinosaurs they are

  16. XRumerPEWPEP

    January 10th, 2008 at 8:58 am

    Hello here…
    I am XRumer, where is my drink?!
    Its only a testing…

  17. Aaronontheweb

    January 10th, 2008 at 9:09 am

    @2

    “correlation != causation”

    This is Duncan Riley we’re talking about.

  18. Lord

    January 10th, 2008 at 9:29 am

    All the more important then, for them to stick it out.

  19. bee kay

    January 10th, 2008 at 10:21 am

    Yeah let’s blame the writers! They don’t have to eat or anything and if they do, go work in a lumber mill or something, who cares about you as long as I can get stuff for cheap; cause it’s all about me me me.

  20. Kin Lane

    January 10th, 2008 at 10:23 am

    It is so great how the tv, movie, and music industry is enabling this to be a sort of “self fulfilling prophecy”, and is putting the nail in their own coffins.

    All just because they are too greedy to see it and are willing to embrace the new media.

  21. Kin Lane

    January 10th, 2008 at 10:25 am

    Second thought……maybe this is a conscious, planned strategy to force all us lemmings over the cliff into the new medium.

    Could they be so smart?

  22. rick

    January 10th, 2008 at 11:11 am

    Online video sucks, just sayin

  23. Everett

    January 10th, 2008 at 11:27 am

    I’m guessing with the writers strike and online videos going up and up, this has got to be hurting DVD purchasing and renting no? Your thoughts?

  24. Ed

    January 10th, 2008 at 1:26 pm

    Viral videos may be all the rage for a few weeks, but they don’t replace the Heroes, Friends, Simpsons, and other such series that a lot of people love. So Duncan, Online Video may be going Up, Up, Up, Up, but the content is still meh quality in most cases.

  25. Timothy

    January 11th, 2008 at 6:31 am

    Ed is correct. People want things like friends / simpsons/lost not the rubbish that appears on youtube and the like.

    viral is funny for a while but only for 1-2 minutes. Once youve see one viral vid youve seen them all.

    ————–
    http://www.xencasino.com

  26. deeharvey

    January 16th, 2008 at 1:38 pm

    @10 Ericson

    well said, I totally agree.

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