“The future of the Web is video.” We’ve been hearing that for years, right? And it still feels like I’m doing a whole lot of reading online. In fact, you’re doing a whole lot of reading online right now.
You know what else? They just added closed captioning to YouTube videos. That’s more reading.
But Nielsen has just released a “breakthrough” study that shows that 70% of online consumers now watch online video. As if that’s supposed to be a convincing statistic that we’re getting closer to the day of a strictly video Internet.
Frankly, I was shocked at how low that number was. Who doesn’t watch online video? Well, they’re out there. And it’s actually North Americans and Europeans that are lagging in this adoption globally. But, in its favor, video is already being watched on mobile devices by 11% of global consumers. And tablet PCs (see: iPad) are going to be expanding what “mobile ” means, and increasing this number.
But, with all the Web has to offer, people are still watching more than 4 hours of television a day. 30% of these people are watching it in HD. And 12% plan on owning a 3D television within the next year.
So, this begs the question. Will the Web become more video-based? Or will the Internet just start providing our televised entertainment?