The consequences for a website where video content underperforms include loss in goodwill, return visitors and potential advertising revenues, according to an Akamai Technologies study conducted by JupiterResearch, MarketingCharts reports.

The Akamai study explores two elements of online video's future success: consumer preferences around video consumption and consumer reaction to low-quality viewing experiences.

Some findings from the study:

• 46 percent of online consumers watch online video monthly or more frequently.
• 43 percent of online consumers who connect to the internet by broadband watch online video at least once per week.
• 80 percent of online video users accept the presence of advertising as a trade-off for providing free online video content.

• Online video that is interrupted for buffering purposes and playback that is slow to begin are the greatest sources of frustration.

• 60 percent of frequent online video users (i.e., those who watch online videos at least once per week), are less likely to return to a site for video content if the viewing experience is poor, and close to half would seek their video content from a competing website.
• More than a quarter of those users said they would be less likely to visit a poorly performing website again for any reason; they also said they would have a more negative overall perception of a site with poorly performing video content.

MarketingCharts includes more data and charts in its coverage.