When Hulu first launch there was much question whether viewers would tolerate video ads with video content. That question has been answered - and now new statistics show that people are becoming even more accepting of online ads in video. Indeed, at least one observer theorizes that there is plenty of room run left in the online ads that can be served with video content.
The stats come video ad manager FreeWheel, which reported, among other findings that long-form content carried an average of nearly 3 ads per view, with an 81% ad completion rate. These numbers show that people are becoming more accepting of ads - just as they did with television.
Will Richmond at Video Nuze takes these observations and statistics one step further and states there is still a huge opportunity in the ad load gap between online delivery and TV. Also, he adds, "online video completion rates could become the basis to offset DVR-driven ad-skipping."
Regarding the former: "three ads of mostly 30 seconds each aggregating to 90 seconds in a long-form online view is far less than the 8 minutes of ad time typically seen on TV per half-hour program. That monetization gap suggests a potentially big opportunity to increase the volume of ads delivered." As for DVR users, they clearly love the ad-skipping capability. "One of the little-touted benefits of online delivery is that in-stream ads can't be avoided…With the FreeWheel data suggesting ad acceptance is currently very high, there is an inherent opportunity to highlight improved viewership metrics to advertisers mitigating concerns that many TV ads are not just tuned out, but actually skipped altogether."
Where is the Long-form Content?
All of this, though, ignores the fact that there is not much quality long-form video content available - although that is rapidly changing. At the beginning of August, Hulu launched its first long-form original program, a documentary series called "A Day in the Life." Much, though, depends on the definition of long-form. Using FreeWheel’s measure - two minutes or more - the range of examples expand significantly. Yahoo en Espanol has launched an original sports feature called "La Locura” consisting of three-minute segments featuring funny moments from sports.
