Four out of five (81%) of Web users click away from online video pages when they encounter mid-stream rebuffering rather than wait for slow video streams to reload, according to a study from TubeMogul.
The findings suggest that many post-roll ads are routinely missed by online consumers.
Rebuffering is a common occurrence: 6.84% of video streamed by top video-delivery sites and networks are slow loading, according to TubeMogul.
"The technology just isn't there yet to have a TV-like experience," David Burch, marketing director at TubeMogul, is quoted by MediaPost as saying. "And if it's an advertiser hosting video on a branded site or distributing it across the Web, people are just clicking away when they see that spinning wheel."
Across five popular content-delivery platforms, Limelight performed best, serving slow video streams only 4% of the time, followed by Panther Networks (5%), Akamai Technologies (8%), Edgecast (9.5%), and BitGravity (12.5%), reported MediaPost.
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Video Ad Market Still Forecast to Grow
Despite such spotty video performance, consumer demand for online and pay TV video-on-demand (VoD) services continues to accelerate, creating opportunities for advertisers: The advanced video ad market is forecast to reach $5 billion by 2013, according to In-Stat.
Online VoD services such as Hulu, CBS Interactive, and ABC.com are already driving growth in advanced-advertising* revenue across their platforms, In-Stat said.
* Next-generation approaches that permit advertisers to dramatically improve their targeting, reporting, and overall return on investment (ROI).
About the data: Compiled by TubeMogul, data are based on a sample of 192,268,561 streams from six top video sites and platforms over a 14-day period. The sample was primarily short-form content (i.e., 2-10 minutes), although long-form TV content was included.
