Online Video On Fast Track

Want to get your viral video in front of the most potential customers? Take it online. That is the result of a new study from eMarketer, which indicates online video advertising will grow 82% this year alone.

by Kristina Knight

According to the study, online video allows for more targeted messages and also replicates television – a long time favorite with advertisers and consumers. Online video is expected to explode in the next four years, growing to $410 million this year and an expected $3 billion in 2010.

With the growth of Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) and Video On Demand (VOD) services and the growth in online video, is television dead? Not hardly, according to the experts. They point to the fact that only about 4% of all TV watching is done through DVR or VOD.

"The alarmist claims that DVRs and VOD will bring about the death of TV and the loss of billions of advertising dollars are just plain wrong," says Ben Macklin, eMarketer senior analyst (via eMarketer). "More people will watch more TV and video content in the future, not less. They will just be doing it in different ways — and that opens a whole new world of opportunities."

Even with the huge growth expected, online video will account for only about 2.5% of advertising revenue this year, and only 11.5% of revenue in 2010 according to eMarketers estimates.