There are many times you want to share a video on YouTube but not truly share a video on YouTube. Now the service has introduced an option to post "unlisted" video.

By "unlisted" it means available only to those who know a dedicated URL, meaning no public display, no channel availability, and no search engine results. It also means access to anyone you choose, not just someone with a YouTube account.

While Mashable speculates this option will be very valuable for education purposes and for non-profits, it's hard to believe it wouldn't also be useful for services looking to distribute video selectively to certain audiences as a premium or exclusive offering.
 
 
The latest monthly figures for video views in the United States suggest Google continues to be the dominant provider.

The data from comScore Inc. says Americans watched 31.2 billion videos online in the month of March, with Google sites like YouTube garnering 42 per cent of the total, or 13 billion. YouTube reached three of four viewers and Google had 136 million unique visitors to video in the month.

Hulu was a distant second at 1.1 billion views.

The data indicates some 180 million Americans (or 85 per cent of the Internet audience) viewed an average of 173 videos in March.
 
 
In his latest post for the Online Journalism Review, Robert Niles suggests newsrooms reallocate the sudden attention on the iPad and devote some resources to a video-on-demand strategy.

The future of video delivery won't be cable or satellite but the video-on-demand services now largely provided by firms like Netflix in the U.S. or Zip in Canada. Sooner or later those delivery systems will open to wider competition and the network concept, which has lately shifted to a program-by-program concept of viewing, will become even more granular --- just as blogs have emerged from print media.

Niles sees an opening for delivering newscasts or commentator pieces directly --- and he sees a business model in there. It's time to build the pieces to pursue that work, he argues.
 
 
The boom continues for online video in the United States. The audience measurement firm comScore says 178 million Americans watched video online in December.

Some 33.2 billion videos were seen in the month. YouTube is the largest video outfit on the Web, with more than 13 billion viewed, but it was the first month in which Hulu served up more than one billion views.

The math is astounding: The 178 million watched an average of 187 videos in the month.

 
 
YouTube Direct is the dominant Google-owned video service's attempt to bridge the gap between news organizations and creators. It permits editors to obtain and assign video from so-called citizen journalists.

A handful of large organizations are testing the service, which essentially serves as a go-between.

It permits a call-out to videographers and links them to newsrooms.
 
 
The New York Times today chronicles the rise of online video and notes that even many text-oriented news sites are putting video up front to capitalize on the boom in video-related advertising.

The Times says firms expect growth of between 35 and 45 per cent in each of the next five years. Video ads are commanding higher rates, too.

News executives quoted in the story say that, with each watershed event, video becomes a more significant element for their sites. It is now expected by the user. And the ability to share video is a feature that separates online  from television.
 
 
The Pew Internet & American Life Project continues to produce solid trendsetting data. The latest suggests a continued growth in online video consumption among Americans, with a majority now watching  --- a near-doubling of the total to 62 per cent from 33 per cent in 2006.

"As the audience for online video continues to grow, a leading edge of internet users are migrating their viewing from their computer screens to their TV screens," Pew reports.

Daily use has reached 19 per cent, up from 8 per cent in 2006. Earlier this year it reported some decline in cable use, but a much smaller decline in Internet use, owing to economic conditions. Pew now believes some of those cable-cutters are watching online.

Particularly of interest for the traditional production industries is that movie and television show consumption is up to 35 per cent of the viewers from 16 per cent in 2006.
 
 

Findings from the recent Magid Associates study indicate an opportunity for television outlets to make gains online. Short-form video is emerging as the compelling entertainment form, and while news clips are significant in the mix, they aren't the format of choice.

The study indicates online video viewing has reached critical mass. It suggests people are increasingly multitasking while watching TV and that one-fifth indicate they are watching less TV as they watch more online video. Some 37 per cent said they find professional short-form video as entertaining as full-length shows.

Professionally-done video was a regular viewing choice among 43 per cent of respondents and news was a choice among 32 per cent. The opportunity appears to be for TV outlets to supply more timely content in greater volume.

 
 

Cisco Systems is releasing a report today predicting five-fold growth in Internet traffic in the next five years, principally due to the huge growth in online video.

Cisco says Internet traffic will top 56 exabytes a month by 2013, up from nine per month now, and that 90% of traffic will come from video, be it downloads or streams of television, movies or file-sharing of video.

The report predicts mobile traffic will rise 66-fold during that time, again due mainly to video.

 
 

A seven-point plan to affordable social media, by Roland Legrand of the Belgian Mediafin chain on the PBS MediaShift site, is helpful to newsrooms looking to make more of a mark in it.

The guide is pretty simple, but might be harrowing for traditionalists:
1. Publish raw material.
2. Worry less about the style.
3. Think about events that can go live.
4. Steer clear of Flash.
5. Don't worry about raw video, either.
6. Mobilize community content.
7. Link journalism.


 
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