With all the doom and gloom about the end of the old-media world, the New York Times notes that there’s one media that is still thriving: TV. Newspapers are drying up — books aren’t selling — and people are spending more and more time online. But they’re also still watching TV — in record amounts in fact. “People are showing a clear preference for a fully formed video experience that comes ready to play on a screen, requiring nothing but our passive attention.” The story points to YouTube as something boosts TV, instead of hurting.
Also, the NYT smartly points out that there isn’t a ton of money-making advertising online… or is very much online advertising effective (outside of pay-per-click).
But once that special case is put aside, online advertisers have a stark choice: The first option is placing display ads at very inexpensive rates, thanks to an overabundance of supply, but these disappear in the vast ocean of the Web: some 4.5 trillion display ads were shown to United States Internet users in 2008, according to comScore.
Or advertisers can use ads that resemble television commercials and match those to the online content that most resembles television — because it actually is television programming. Hulu, which was created by NBC and Fox, offers many TV shows online and had a 57 percent increase in viewership in the last six months of 2008.
“In screen culture, video rules. “
