Contrary to popular belief that we will all be watching Ad supported Free TV online, it has been claimed that this year will see a major growth in viewers paying to watch online TV.

In a report published by Strategy Analytics, online viewers will happily pay to view, as they currently pay to listen with music downloads.

The report shows that worldwide spending on internet video content will generate $3.8 billion during 2009 even though we currently sit in the biggest depression of current times. This amount will surpass advertising revenue from online video for 2009, expected to hit $3.5 billion.

Even with the massive surge in popularity of online video sites such as Hulu and many other ad supported tv websites, the report reveals that paying for tv content will grow at a quicker rate than free content during the next few years. The growth rate is expected to be 39% each year up until 2012 as opposed to 37% for advertising paid content.

Interestingly, the report reveals that the current economic downturn is actually encouraging paid content. Martin Olausson, Strategy Analytics director of digital media research said:- “The economic downturn and diminishing advertising budgets have increased the focus on consumer paid content on the Web in the last six months.”

There has been a massive decline in advertising budgets everywhere which has slowed internet TV’s advertising growth, said Olausson. More and more consumers are staying at home for their entertaining pleasure and paying for it.

It seems that because paying a small amount for content is now considered the norm. Viewers will happily fork out for viewing pleasure as well.

Source http://www.strategyanalytics.com/

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