The study’s focus didn’t actually compare newspapers using video streams to those who lacked it. Instead, it revealed that newspaper websites are blowing away their local broadcast TV counterparts, attracting $81 million and $32 million respectively for local video ads.

Although these numbers don’t show concretely how economically profitable local video streaming is for a newspaper, they do indicate a non-negligible advantage for newspapers in the market.

Furthermore, the overall market is still quite small, amounting to €161 million in 2006. But Borrell Associates predicts that in five years, local online video advertising will exceed $5 billion, about a third of total local online advertising.

The study positively notes that about 40% of roughly 1,450 dailies in the US are equipped with online video streaming in one form or another. Thus, while newspapers may be struggling right now to compensate print losses with digital revenues, online videos could be the booming solution of the future.

Since newspapers already have an edge, and if this market continues to grow, online video streaming should be a business priority for any newspaper manager.

Dominant ad categories will be real estate and automotive, according to Borrell. Newspapers that cater to those targeted demographics beware: online video streaming could and will attract plenty of ad money in the future.

Source: paidcontent.org