Ned Randolph

New evidence suggest that visits to online video sites have risen drammatically in the last year, aided in part by the ongoing writer's strike and lack of new material on TV.

A pair of recent studies by Nielson Online and Pew Internet and American Life Project show an increasing number of Americans visiting online web sites -- including amateur sites where they watch and post videos -- in the last year and some sites such as YouTube and Crackle spiking upward in visits cooinciding with the writer's strike that started in late October.

And some companies, like Blockbuster, say they expect customers to rent more DVDs, as the television content grows stale with the elongated strike.

According to Nielsen Online, sites like YouTube and Crackle, have experienced unprecedented growth in the two months since the strike began. YouTube's audience was up 18% in the two months after the strike started and Crackle's audienced doubled from 1.2 million visits in September and October to 2.4 million in November and December.

"That is greater growth than you would normally see in such a short period and the strike could be a possible factor," Nielsen analyst Alex Burmaster is quoted by BBC News.

A sister study by Pew Internet & American Life Project found that nearly half (48%) of U.S. net users visited a video sharing site during 2007, and about 15% visit online video sites on the average day to either watch or post video.

Pew cites the spread of broadband connections and the widespread use of video by a variety of websites as factors for the longer term growth in audiences to video sharing sites. About 54% of American adults now have a high-speed connection at home, compared to 45% at the same time last year.

Men are slightly more likely to use a video-sharing site than women - 53% compared to 43%. But it is the young who are really driving the increase with 70% of people under 30 using such sites.

Blockbuster CEO James Keyes says recently that DVD rentals should get good a boost early this year from the Hollywood writers' strike, which might drive consumers to rent more TV episodes. 

Industries: Retail, Technology, VOD/Downloads