Everyone is talking about online video being the big revenue driver this year, but beyond the hype there are a number of issues to address in the Australian marketplace.

Beyond the obvious “fraudband/broadband” issue, which is getting better by the day, marketers need to address:

1. The formats they wish to use

2. The shortage of supply of Australian video content.

Strange, that in the age of engagement we are still using traditional TV based creative, in the interactive environment the automatic default has been to pre and post roll creative formats. Plugging a traditional media format into a newer medium is simply square peg round hole and is rapidly becoming less relevant to a savvy audience that increasingly expects integration and more intelligent advertising.

Nielsen states that the majority of online viewing (83% in the US) is made of short form video viewing whilst in the UK, ITV is predicted to make as much as $70m from its online TV service this year according to Screen Digest. Nielsen claim the number of people in Australia watching video online has risen from 25.2% in 2006 to 79.1% in 2009 so, with more and more people watching video online in Australia and interest growing at a rapid rate, why the lack of content in Australia?