Poll: Online viewers shun lengthy videos

updated 7:58 a.m. ET Sept. 5, 2006

NEW YORK - You won't find Vanita Butler sitting in front of her computer watching a full-length movie or television show, even though she's an avid viewer of video on the Internet.

The 43-year-old saleswoman from Newark, Ohio, said she sees the Internet as more of a tool — for catching a news story or highlights from a NASCAR race.  When she has time for entertainment, she and her husband prefer the television set.

"It's a little bit more of an intimate environment," Butler said of watching television.  "We can sit and do it together."

Butler is a typical consumer of video over the Internet, according to a new AP-AOL Video poll, which found that only one in five online video viewers have watched or downloaded a full-length movie or television show.

Overall, more than half of Internet users have watched or downloaded video.  News clips were the most popular, seen by 72 percent of online video viewers, followed by short movie and TV clips, music videos, sports highlights and user-generated amateur videos.

Cheryl Landers, 50, a retail manager in Dedham, Mass., said she finds amateur clips funny and entertaining, but with two foster kids, she can never spare more than five minutes at a time, let alone a whole hour to watch an entire television episode.  She said she usually has the TV on as background noise.

The poll's findings come as major Hollywood studios and television networks are increasingly making their old and current programs available online — free with commercials, or for $1.99 an episode through services like Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes Music Store and Google Inc.'s video store.  AOL announced deals with four studios last month to offer programs through its new video portal.

"Rome wasn't built in a day," said Benjamin Feingold, president of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, which is selling programs and giving away ad-supported shows through AOL.  "A lot of progress has been made in terms of the quality of video and audio on the Web. It's not the same as broadcast or DVD, but it's improving."

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