The PC will not beat the TV for Video Ad Dollars.

A lot of people believe that just because a growing number of folks are using their laptops and PCs to watch video, the day will come when advertising support for video on the computer screen will rival or pass video on the television screen. I am not one of those folks. Video on the PC will never beat video on the TV for ad dollars. Here’s why:

Screens and environment matter. All video is not the same. Where, how and on what device you watch it, not to mention whom you watch it with, matters a lot. Watching video on a laptop alone while sitting in an airport is a very different experience from watching video with three friends on a 60-inch high-definition screen with Surround Sound in your living room. Both could be online, and both could have degrees of interactivity, but those factors create very different experiences for viewers and advertisers.

TV screens deliver more sensual impact. A large TV screen in a living room, bedroom or entertainment room delivers more sight, sound and motion impact than a 17-inch screen on your lap. While PCs can now deliver very satisfactory media experiences, you can’t compare them to what large screens deliver today. It matters. The big screen, with its “lean-back” viewing experience, creates a very different sensual experience. More than four decades ago, Marshall McLuhan told us that “the medium is the message.” It is still true. More sensual impact on TV means more brand and message impact and more money per ad.

More ad tolerance. TV viewers are more tolerant of advertising today than computer video viewers. Like it or not, rational or not, this is the reality. I suspect it stems from the higher degree of control that computer video viewers and their “lean-forward” viewing express, relative to the more passive approach of those watching big-screen televisions, frequently with others. More ad tolerance on TV means more ads, and more money.

Usage. Video consumption on computers is growing, but it is still tiny relative to video consumption on TV. In fact, the amount of time that people in the U.S. spend watching live television is still growing.

Considering the amount of time-shifted, rented and Internet video that viewers are consuming today on TVs, it’s clear that TV will be the dominant video usage platform for a long, long time.

Big head start. U.S. annual ad spend on television today is 66 times bigger than on computer video — $66 billion to $1 billion. To close that gap, computer video advertising would have to grow at a very big rate year-over-year for a long time, and TV ad spend would have to decline substantially year-over-year for a long time. Given the fact that TV consumer usage has not lost share to the Internet, unlike TV’s media brethren of newspapers, magazines and radio, I’m willing to bet on television’s dominance for at least a couple decades to come.

What do you think? Will advertising spend on computer video ever surpass TV?

By Dave Morgan
Dave Morgan is the CEO of Simulmedia. Previously, he founded and ran both TACODA and Real Media.
Courtesy of http://www.mediapost.com