According to a research by media consultancy Conchango, one third of UK’s web users prefer video to other online media. One quarter think information delivered through video was easier to understand. 39% preferred video because it was less time-consuming than text.

Better yet for publishers, an increasing number of consumers tolerated ads as long as the content remained free.

"So many publishers are worried about how the internet is going to affect their revenue. What these findings say is that so long as advertisers are thoughtful and audience-focused with their creative, they will continue to provide revenue to fund the provision of free content," said Paul Dawson, head of interactive media at Conchango.

Now, combine these findings with the fact that one of Google’s vice-presidents and Internet pioneer, Vint Cerf, predicted that “TV was rapidly approaching the same kind of crunch moment that the music industry faced with the arrival of the MP3 player,” reported the Guardian.

"85% of all video we watch is pre-recorded, so you can set your system to download it all the time," said Cerf at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival.

According to Cerf, we’ll soon be downloading our TV content at will and in no time, so why bother watching TV on its set schedule?

"You're still going to need live television for certain things - like news, sporting events and emergencies - but increasingly it is going to be almost like the iPod, where you download content to look at later."

Where do newspapers stand? Not in bad position if they continue to work on their video offerings.

Source: The Guardian here and here