Writer Strike Great News For YouTube

Online video sites are reaping the benefits of the ongoing writer strikes, with television viewers switching to their PCs to find new programming.

Nielsen Online, which surveys and measures Internet use, says YouTube's audience has risen 18% since the strike began. Rivals DailyMotion and LiveVideo have both seen similar increases, while Crackle, an offshoot of Sony Pictures, has seen traffic double in the same period.

Visitor figures across all video sites have gone up by 10% during the strike. Analyst Alex Burmaster says such rapid growth is far higher than normal and suggests the strike is a possible factor. (Source: bbc.co.uk)

Such findings come at the end of another record year for online video sites. Pew Internet, a group which researches the effects of the Internet on Americans' daily lives, says overall online video traffic doubled during 2007. 15% of people questioned had visited such a site in the previous day (up from 8% in 2006), while the proportion who had ever visited a site rose from 33% to 48%. With only 54% of Americans having a high-speed connection, it appears nearly every broadband user has at least tried a video site.

The study also shows men are slightly more likely to visit video sites than women, though the female audience is growing quickest. The under-30s are still the most common age group using video sites, while 14% of people claim to have filmed their own videos and put them online, three times the figures from last year.

Pew's director Lee Rainie said the study backed his own experience of co-workers and children turning to online videos in place of traditional TV: "This is just putting numbers on something we all know is happening." (Source: nj.com)

Although online videos are establishing themselves, with broadband in just half of all American homes it seems unlikely the Internet will take over from television any time soon.