Online Video To Grow 12-Fold By 2012 To $6B In Revenues

[DudeAsInCool]

Although online video is often free to consumers—just think of YouTube or CBS's Innertube service—it still makes big advertising dollars. When you combine ad revenues from the free sites with money from pay services like Unbox, iTunes, and CinemaNow, the online video market is already pulling in $538 million in the US alone. That's not bad, but it's poised to grow more than tenfold in only six years.

Informa Telecoms & Media estimates that in 2012, such online video services will pull in $6.3 billion worldwide, with 65 percent of that generated in North America. The world is becoming an on-demand place, and video is no exception. Traditional broadcasters know it, and that's why each one is investing heavily in Internet delivery services for their content. But users are also interested in material they can't get from major media outlets—like brides chopping off their own hair hours before the wedding. User-generated content and on-demand expectations are making online video one of the hottest content sectors to be a part of at the moment, but that doesn't mean that established players aren't worried about it.

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