Research carried out monitoring Canadian viewing habits has shown that online video consumption could soon surpass traditional televised viewing at home.

The survey was conducted by Ipsos Reid and M Consulting, which reported that nearly all canadians between the ages of 18 and 24 watch some online video, with more than three quarters watching at least a few times a week. In contrast to this 68% of Canadians ages 55+ stated that they also watch online video at times.

"There is the potential that a critical mass of Canadians could be watching more online video than TV much sooner than experts predicted," M Consulting president Bill Mohri said.

Mohri continued to find that 85% of Canadians have access to broadband, which has created an entirely different market for online video production compared to the US where only 50% of the population have internet access

Reports released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) found that record breaking numbers are being spent on video advertising.

With the sudden increase in video advertisements the IAB has collected data to monitor the growth of video production for advertisement.

A range of advertising formats used have increased significantly, including digital video which amounts to $627 million spent in the USA alone. The growth in digital video advertising has increased by 31% . This increase suggests that consumers are responding better and also demanding video content for products and services.

“Interactive advertising revenue is on a strong upward trajectory,” said Sherrill Mane, SVP, Industry Services, IAB. “Nearly all types of ad formats are showing positive movement and marketers across all advertising categories, most notably consumer packaged goods and pharmaceuticals, are increasing their investment in digital media.”

What these results suggest is that companies are spending more money to advertise and promote online, which would suggest that consumers are responding well to video adverts. 

Cinematographer Luke Geussbuhler has created a winning viral video which took father and son activities to a whole new level, through launching an Iphone 4 into space.

The family duo created an ingenious aircraft design, combining a weather balloon, iPhone 4 and GPS tracker placed inside a foam protective case.

After assailing for 70 minutes to an incredible 100,000 feet, the balloon reached it's breaking point, as the parachute deploys, the Iphone documents a comet like arrival to earth, bursting through an endless sea of clouds before revealing the green fields of Rifton.

The father and son duo tracked the Iphones location via the GPS transmitter and the mobile me tracking service. After traveling 19 miles into the air the Iphone space craft amazingly landed only 30 miles away from it's launching point.

Geissbuhler is selling t-shirts and other merchandise to raise funds for a sophomore voyage.

Be sure to watch this great online video below:

Homemade Spacecraft from Luke Geissbuhler on Vimeo.

Research carried out by Next New Networks, Frank Magid Associates and Youtube has found that consumers place a considerable amount of value on original online video content.

Between May and June of this year, a survey was produced to monitor viewers' watching habits and 54% of the respondents who watched original web videos deemed them to be just as, if not more, entertaining than the programmes on television.

However, results also showed that although viewers consider online video highly entertaining, they also regard this content within it's own category and not directly comparable to television.

Online video was described as being entertaining, original, having fewer boundaries and adaptable to individual viewing schedules.

"The study uncovered strong consumer appeal of original web programming as compared to traditional television shows," said Mike Vorhaus, managing director of Frank Magid Associates. "The findings confirm what many have believed for some time now: there is incredible content and talent available on the Web."

Overall, 60% of respondents reported that they watch web video content weekly. A very interesting result showed that around a quarter of viewers said they use social networking sites, email or conversations to spread the word and help market web videos which appealed to them.

Find out more about the benefits of online video marketing.

American Estate Agents Zillow  has seen the future in video marketing and is investing on a big scale.

With the current explosion of , companies are beginning to realise just how important video production plays in their marketing strategy. With this marketing plan in mind, Zillow has partnered with Vscreen to incorporate online video into it's marketing campaign for real estate.

Vscreen is an internet video strategy firm which assists companies in video content specifically in real estate and insurance.

“This is an ideal opportunity for Zillow's advertisers to tell their story in a brief, high impact video that can achieve mass distribution via a variety of channels” says VScreen’s co-founder Stephen Schweickart. “This is the first step in VScreen’s efforts to provide Zillow with turnkey video services ranging from filming and editing, to consultation and cutting-edge video technology.”

Let's hope that within the next few years, the majority of all businesses will follow in this example of online video marketing.