Another day, another survey about online video. This particular one throws up some interesting results, particularly in terms of how often people are watching online video, how it compares to TV, and the increased acceptance of advertising.

Metacafe Survey

Every single piece of analysis conducted over the last few years has suggested online video is growing, and in a supremely fast and aggressive manner. And a new survey on behalf of Metacafe continues this trend.

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The ComScore figures for May show that online video is back on track, after a couple of wobbly months. YouTube enjoyed an especially good period, while Hulu had a somewhat mixed month with views up but viewers remaining static.

ComScore May 2010

I think it’s safe to say online video is established. The new ComScore statistics for online video viewers show that 183 million people in the U.S watched online video during the month of May. That’s 84.8 percent of all Internet users in the U.S.

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Nielsen is claiming cord-cutting is nothing more than a myth, despite growing evidence people are increasingly choosing free online video options over expensive cable subscriptions. I think the research firm is wrong, and it will proved so over the next few years.

Cutting The Cord

Cutting the cord is essentially the act of canceling your cable TV subscription in an effort to save money. And with the average cable bill coming to more than $100 in the U.S., canceling it is guaranteed to save money.

People who cut the cord are increasingly turning to online video to fill that new void in their life. And one-in-eight people are expected to either eliminate or scale back their TV services during 2010. Which would equate to more than 10 million households.

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The dream surely has to be that online video is open and available to everyone, no matter their background, age, or income.

Unfortunately that doesn’t appear to be the situation at the moment, with these factors playing a role in viewing habits.

Online Video

Online video comes in many forms. There is YouTube, with its mix of UGC and premium content. There are catchup TV services such as Hulu and the BBC iPlayer. There is the option to buy or rent shows from various source, notably Apple iTunes.

Then there are the connected TV services starting to show up, with Project Canvas and Google TV two of the biggest and boldest offerings.

However, the one thing all of these forms of online video have in common is the need for a Broadband Internet connection. And the faster it is, the better, as it means streaming is more fluid, and downloads less time-consuming.

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The online video sector is still a relatively young one. But in the short space of time it’s been a part of our lives, it’s managed to change the way many of us consume television and movies. Especially amongst the younger generations.

Online Video Infancy

It’s easy to forget how young online video still is. YouTube has only been with us for five years. While Hulu and the BBC iPlayer (the best catchup services either side of the Atlantic) have arrived on the scene even more recently.

This means the industry as a whole is nothing more than an infant, still sucking at the teat of Hollywood and broadcast television. But things are changing, with a definite feeling that online video is growing up and maturing just a little bit.

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Online video is still, relatively speaking, in its infancy. But it growing more popular, and the choices available to viewers are growing. Which could see online video to surpass broadcast TV by 2020, which is only a decade away.

Online Video

As much as those of us who write about online video would like to believe it is an ubiquitous and essential part of people’s lives, that isn’t quite the case yet. At least not a mainstream way, and when compared to traditional broadcast television.

Sure, YouTube is known and used the world over, but the Google site’s content is usually short and sweet. Which is why U.S. viewers currently only watch an average of 22 minutes of online video a week. Which compares to 30 hours of broadcast TV.

Still, things are changing. Slowly for now, but possibly speeding up in the near future.

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YouTube is now officially five-years-old, with the site having launched in beta in May 2005. YouTube is celebrating this fact, naturally, and the fact that it is now serving two billion video views a day. Which is an incredible achievement.

YouTube Turns Five

YouTube is now five-years-old. Officially. We here at WebTVWire already celebrated this once back in February, which is actually when the YouTube domain was first registered by co-founders Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. But the launch didn’t occur for a further three months.

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