Mark Cuban raised some interesting points in a recent blog post comparing online video audiences to TV ones. His main argument is that the TV business is going from strength to strength while YouTube and others in the online video arena are struggling to create sustainable content strategies. He also picks holes in their pitch to advertisers, stating the “big lie” of the online video world is that video views are the same as the number of TV viewers.
The views of a video on Youtube includes all the showings over an extended period of time. The ratings for SharkTank or any tv show all happened during the 1 hour the show was on the air. Which is exactly why TV is still a much more valuable advertising medium. Would you rather have your ad seen by the audience all within one hour, or over some unknown extended period ? Who knows how long it will take for your online video to reach 8mm unique viewers ? It will certainly be more than 1 hour. That is an advantage that TV has and will not lose for the forseeable future. No matter what happens with wired TVs or mobile devices TV gives you an audience right now.
Read Cuban’s full post on his blog.
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