Online video viewers who watch TV episodes on sites like Hulu would be willing to watch almost twice as many ads as they're currently seeing, comScore today told the Advertising Research Foundation's Annual Convention + Expo in New York. The research put a crimp in a notion held by many in the industry that viewers who watched TV episode online did so to avoid watching ads.
"We are leaving money on the table (by not carrying a heavier ad load in online videos)," Tania Yuki, director of cross media and video products at comScore, said.
She said that only 38 percent of the 2,000-some people surveyed said they watch online video to avoid ads, while nearly three quarters of viewers who watch TV episodes online (71 percent) do so to catch up on episodes they missed and 67 percent said they watched online video as a matter of convenience.
Yuki said Hulu generally runs about four minutes of ads an hour and could easily increase it to seven minutes without impacting viewer tolerance.
The survey also showed 71 percent of respondents identified themselves as TV-only viewers, while 29 percent said they watched their favorite programs both on TV and online.
For more:
- see this MediaWeek article
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