We’ve talked in previous posts about the explosion of Internet and mobile video, but this recent report from ComScore really puts this into perspective.  Their Video Metrix report revealed that nearly 75 percent of U.S. Internet users watched an average of 3 hours of online video during the month of July, accounting for more than 9 billion videos viewed.  Given that the average online video duration was only 2.7 minutes, this means that people are watching a lot of short form video content - approximately 66 online videos in one month.  Consumers are voting by way of their viewing habits and I fully expect future ComScore reports will show even larger numbers.

The rise of the consumer as content creator has led to an explosion of user generated video, making it increasingly difficult for UGC sites to keep up with the transcoding needed to publish the growing amount of online video.  To continue to meet increasing consumer demand, high volume video sites have to re-think the way they approach transcoding.  There is opportunity to get ahead of the transcode transaction problem, before these growing pains become a real barrier to growth.