How Long Can Web Video Stay Relatively Ad-Free?

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2010 is widely expected to be the year Web video enters the mainstream. HD streaming is finally possible on both ends of the pipe; companies are racing to get Web TV playing on real TVs; more and more people continue to stream video from Hulu, even as its stable of shows and videos remain volatile. Chief among the reasons people are watching online is the paucity of its advertising. Three 30-second spots for a sitcom? Six for an hour long drama? If you timed it right, you could get through a show online faster than on a DVR. This is the Internet’s killer feature.

Yet CBS wants to kill it. At a conference last week, CBS Interactive’s general manager, Anthony Soohoo, offered this:

When you were trying to encourage users to watch videos on the Web you needed to have less ads, and the main reason for that was because the video quality was pretty crappy a few years ago…[Now] there’s really no difference between what you’re seeing on your television versus what you can watch on your PC…Users have been trained and they have accepted the fact that the TV ad-load format does work.” (emphasis mine)

For those who prefer moving pictures:

This is very worrisome. It is of course expected that the networks will try to make as much money as possible from a service that has proved very popular. This is America; this is what happens. But now is not the time to up the number of ads displayed on an episode of Web TV. The medium, despite its burgeoning success, is still too young to make it obey the traditions of its predecessor.