Online video: The long and short of it

(CNN) -- It starts innocently enough. You visit YouTube for, say, a few minutes of football bloopers. Then you switch to funny dog antics, followed by goofy juvenile stuntmen. Before long you've inadvertently spent 30 minutes watching videos on your computer.

Thirty minutes is the length of a TV show -- but would you sit down in front of your computer with the intent of watching a sitcom online? Or would you just go watch regular TV instead?

Much rides on that question, and a lot of smart money is betting you'll watch not only 30-minute shows online, but films and documentaries that last hours.

Prominent among that smart money is Joost. The online video service, currently being beta-tested, is from the same guys behind Skype. Like regular television, Joost is supported by advertising and boasts professionally produced content from major studios. It's full-screen video, too, like real TV.

It differs from TV in how the video gets to you: instead of broadcast, cable or satellite delivery, it's transmitted through the Internet via peer-to-peer technology. But while there are interactive features, like the ability to text-chat on-screen during a show, the overall experience is more or less like regular TV -- passive.

Joost isn't alone. Babelgum, VeohTV and others are also bringing the TV experience to your computer. While Joost seeks partners such as Viacom and CNN, Babelgum wants independent producers so it can offer, as its slogan boasts, "TV experience, Internet substance."

But will these services catch on? And if they do, will users abandon YouTube for more professionally produced content?

Currently on the Web, short videos attract a lot more attention than long ones do. A recent survey of online users by Jupiter Research found that the most popular form of online video is news clips or segments, followed in order by movie trailers, music videos, weather stories or updates, short animated clips, and "personal videos created by people I don't know" (think YouTube). Longer videos, such as movies or TV shows, ranked significantly lower.

But that doesn't mean Joost won't find an audience. "What we'll see online is always going to be a coexistence of user-generated video and professionally created video," says Joe Laszlo, an analyst with Jupiter Research. "They're not antithetical."

In fact, they might blur a bit. "The most talented amateurs probably will turn pro," he says, while there's nothing to stop the big names from dabbling in amateur clips just for fun. He cites "The Landlord" clip from Will Ferrell at Funnyordie.com.

In other words it might be less about YouTube v. Joost, and more about short-form vs. long-form video.

"If a given viewer has a lot of time and wants to sit back and just watch something," says Laszlo, "Joost or Babelgum serve that desire, as do the iTunes store and streaming directly from the TV networks' Web sites."

When a viewer has less time, YouTube and similar sites serve as "very short, very fast, very share-able video clips that make for a quick, easy break from other activities," he adds.

Also entering the fray is Metacafe, a Web site its top officials say is carving out a niche in the area of short-form original content: That is, material made just for the Internet. In a written statement, Metacafe CEO Erick Hachenburg touts his site as a "media snack" for people seeking an entertainment break.

"We're not re-purposing content made for another medium and distributing it online," Hachenburg said. "And we're not a video hosting and sharing site, meaning that we don't just accept and post every video submitted."

But the killer application of video, of course, remains television. "TV I turn on and it goes," notes Kim Gregson, a communications professor at Ithaca College in New York. "Watching TV is pretty easy -- and it's everywhere."

Joost and Babelgum, by contrast, are still relatively obscure, and not nearly as simple as TV. "You don't hear conversations at work about the cool new show on Joost," she notes.

One reason is that for Joost and similar services you need to download and install an application first. Besides adding complexity, that also makes it harder to share videos (with YouTube, by contrast, you just send a link that can be opened in a Web browser).

Laszlo notes one advantage Joost might have over YouTube: "Advertisers are far more comfortable with having their brands next to known professional content than with random amateur video, making the business model easier."

But will the content be any better? New ways of delivering content have promised much in the past. A hundred years ago radio was hailed for its potential to spread enlightenment. Later, TV claimed to be a transcendent medium.

"Don't hold your breath," says Christopher Sharrett, a communications professor at Seton Hall University. "As for the 'independence' of these outlets, can we take the notion seriously at a time when e-commerce has long replaced the 'information super highway'? We'll see the same dross."

The difference, in the end, might be which screen we see it on -- and where the advertising dollars flow. E-mail to a friend

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