Watching full-length TV series episodes online is fast becoming a mainstream activity.
About 33 percent of U.S. adult Internet users, or 58.9 million people, will do so at least once a month this year, according to eMarketer. Among U.S. adults who already watch Web video regularly, the rate is even higher, at 50 percent. Next year, the rate among these groups will rise to 39 percent and 56 percent, respectively.
Online viewership of full-length movies is also rising. According to Ipsos OTX, the percentage of Web users who streamed or downloaded this kind of long-form online video more than doubled between September 2008 and October 2009.
All of this bodes extremely well for online video advertising spending, which eMarketer expects to grow 48.1 percent to $1.5 billion this year in the U.S.
By 2014, online video advertising is projected to reach $5.52 billion, trailing only search and banner ads in the total U.S. ineractive ad market.
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