Move Networks Streamed 100 Million Hours Of HD Video On The Web Last Year

Who needs cable TV? Move Networks, which powers the Web video streaming for ABC, Fox, the Discovery Channel, and Animal Planet, streamed 180 million hours of premium video last year, 100 million of which it claims was in high-definition (at a resolution of 720p). With YouTube turning on an HD viewing option in December, and adding an HD section (as did Hulu), you can expect that 100 million hours to be dwarfed this year across all the major Web video services.

Move also estimates that it reached 55 million unique viewers in 2008, up from 25 million in 2007. The doubling from the year before is in line with a Forrester Research study that shows 63 percent of people watched video on the Web last year, compared to only 32 percent on 2007. In a survey of Move Network viewers, the company itself found that college-age consumers watch a lot more video on the Web—70 percent, with 55 percent saying they watch “more than half of their television programming via the Internet.”

Younger viewers, the ones advertisers want to reach because they are more impressionable, are moving to the Web, and not just for video snacking. (Move’s specialty is streaming full-length episodes of TV shows).