- Katy Bachman, Mediaweek

NEW YORK A vast majority of consumers find advertising a reasonable tradeoff for free online video content, per data from Motion, Ipsos MediaCT's ongoing digital video tracking study.

The survey found that three out of four digital video consumers are amenable to advertising in exchange for long-form video such as TV shows and movies.

The data, collected in February, is based on the responses from 1,100 digital video users age 12 and older.

Advertising becomes less acceptable to consumers as the video content becomes shorter. Around two-thirds of respondents said the inclusion of advertising would be reasonable with free music videos, short news items or sports clips. Slightly more than half of the respondents (52 percent) said advertising would be unacceptable accompanying amateur video content or homemade video.

"As might be expected, digital video consumers generally find it more acceptable to have advertising included within longer, professionally produced video offerings such as full-length movies or TV shows. Fewer are ready to accept this 'price of admission' for shorter-form content or less-professional, polished content," said Adam Wright, director of Ipsos MediaCT.

The findings may have implications for free video-sharing sites, such as YouTube, which has begun to augment its amateur and homemade video lineups with professional clips.

"As advertising starts to appear within their offerings, it has the potential to alter attitudes, perceptions and usage of these sites," said Wright.