In an attempt to "standardize" the Internet user experience, Peter Naylor, senior vice president Digital Media Sales, NBC Universal, told those attending the IAB conference in New York that their short-form video clips would all include a 15-second or under pre-roll starting in July.
Each clip they have that runs between two to five minutes will include a pre-roll clip of that length.
"We did some research with our users," Naylor said. "Short-form clips deserve short-form ads."
As far as their long-form programming online, the network will continue to run 30-second pre-roll commercials for its prime-time shows.
Some of the whining about pre-roll spots has already started by users and critics, but if they think it through, they'll know that this process will be inevitable.
As Shari Anne Brill, vice president and director of programming services for Carat North America, said, "Viewers have no right to complain when you are getting great content for free. It's the cost of getting free content that wouldn't exist if not for advertising support."
I would disagree with here concerning viewers right to complain, they do have that right. But she is right in saying that the content wouldn't be available if it wasn't offered with advertising support. The other option would be a subscription-based model which most people don't want.
Another thing people don't understand is if everything was for free, all smaller online marketers would be out of the game as they could never even come close to offording the type of bandwidth it would take to offer up online video. The only players would be the huge media companies if that were the case.
This is a first step, and I'm sure this will be adjusted and changes as time goes on. It does have to start somewhere though, and it might as well be with a 15-second pre-roll as anything.
My only thought on this is that pre-roll commercial time will probably go down as time goes by and there is more feedback given by viewers.
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