Consumers Willing To Watch Ads With Some VideoConsumers Willing To Watch Ads With Some Video

Three out of four digital video consumers said they would think it's "reasonable" to include ads with free full-length TV shows and movies, but fewer support the idea of having to watch ads to view shorter clips.

Just two-thirds said it would be reasonable to include advertising with free music videos, short news, or sports clips, according to results released by Ipsos MediaCT this week. MOTION, an ongoing digital video tracking study, found that 52% of those ages 12 and up who have viewed video online do not think it's reasonable to include ads with free amateur or homemade videos.

"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, should this content be available for free online," Adam Wright, director of Ipsos MediaCT, said in a statement. "Fewer are ready to accept this 'price of admission' for shorter-form content or less-professional polished content. Still, for most video content types, the majority of these consumers find the trade-off between free video content with advertising to be a fair value proposition."

Wright said that video-sharing sites like YouTube should carefully consider ad-subsidized service models "since their current audience has grown accustomed to free streams without any advertising."

"As advertising starts to appear within their offerings, it has the potential to alter attitudes, perceptions and usage of these sites," he said. "Indeed, given its substantial usage levels among today's digital video consumers, YouTube would appear to have a lot at stake as it begins to experiment with ad-subsidized content."