A couple of straws in the wind for the online media business.
First, TV. YouTube has crowned itself as the world’s top TV sports channel after smashing expectations in its coverage of the Indian Premier League (IPL) tournament.
(For the uninitiated, IPL is a 45-day tournament involving the best of the best cricketers from around the world.)
In its first foray into streaming live sports, YouTube generated five times more views than anticipated, the NewTeeVee blog says.
It was hoping for 10 million views over the six-week tournament; it got more than 51 million.
Those numbers put it ahead of sporting heavyweight channels such NBA, NHL, ESPN and UFC.
The IPL channel was also the most-viewed and most-subscribed channel in India during that period.
The second straw – internet ads. Advertisers last year spent more on online ads than magazines, according to ZenithOptimedia.
Because of the recession, internet ad sales fell declined 3.4% last year – its first decline since 2002.
However, online ads accounted for 12.6% of global spending. Just 10.3% went to magazines.
The internet is fast gaining ground on newspapers. On current trends, internet ad share will overtake that of newspapers in two or three years.
Newspaper ads as a proportion of spending fell from 23.1% in 2009 to 21.7% this year and is forecast to slip to 19.7% in 2012. Internet spending is tipped to reach 17.1% in 2012.