Ad Breaks Rise in Long-Form Online Video, Says FreeWheel Report
The average mid-roll ad break in long-form online video was 101 seconds during 2014's third quarter. That's up from 87 seconds the year before. Despite the rise, viewers are staying put: 30-second ads saw a 90 percent completion rate on long-form content in that quarter. If there's a point where long ad breaks cause the audience to tune away, the industry hasn't found it yet.
Those numbers come from the latest Video Monetization Report from online video monetization company FreeWheel, which is owned by Comcast. Ad breaks are even longer in the U.K., by the way: 144 seconds.
As before, much of FreeWheel's report measures—and hypes—pay TV authentication ("Rumors of TV Everywhere’s imminent demise have proved to be greatly exaggerated," the report says). Authenticated ad views grew 368 percent year-over-year, it says. Since the report is only concerned with monetization, there's no context showing how authenticated viewing fares compared to other options, such as subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services.
The authenticated viewing experience looks to be the mirror-image of the SVOD experience: 73 percent of ad views come from desktops and laptops, as do 64 percent of authentications. Also, 56 percent of ad views for authenticated content ran during live streams, while 82 percent of live content ad views occurred during sporting events.
The FreeWheel Q3 2014 Video Monetization Report is available for free download (registration required).
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