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Rapid Growth of Pre-Roll Advertising Streams

The number of video streams preceded by advertisements (pre-rolls) has grown an average of 105 percent annually over the past five years, compared with 72 percent annual average growth for free or ad-supported content streams, according to a report from AccuStream Research.

The analysis includes videos from major media entities, but does not take into account community-generated video content. During the first four months of 2006, major media brands streamed an average of 1.2 billion videos each month, with 94 percent of these containing pre-roll ads. Yahoo led the market with 24 percent of pre-roll ad streams, followed by Time Warner (13.7 percent), Microsoft (11.4 percent) and Viacom (8.5 percent).

"The high double-digit growth rates seen in pre-roll ad units reflects just how much broadband publishing has caught the attention of rights holders," said AccuStream research director Paul A. Palumbo. "Five years after broadband streams surpassed narrowband, 2006 is quite noteworthy for the number of broadband extensions rolling out."

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