WebProNews

ClipBlast has announced that news related video is the fastest growing video category on the Internet today. They found that video news now accounts for 32 percent of all the video in their indexes, up form 15 percent in January.

Local TV stations are behind the reason for the growth. Over the last four months more local-affiliate Web sites have started to enhance print stories with video clips and video streaming.

"People clearly prefer to watch the news rather than read it - and they're rapidly discovering that news clips are available online, on demand," said Gary Baker, ClipBlast! founder and CEO. "Even the smallest affiliates now recognize what national news organizations have known for years: the race is on to win Web viewers"

According to Hitwise, the amount of traffic leaving news and media sites to watch related video on multimedia sites increased 196 percent from April 2006 to March 2007. The report also found that search engines had a crucial role in bringing traffic to news and media Web sites.

ClipBlast says they see major increases in traffic when major breaking news occurs.

"In the immediate aftermath of the Virginia Tech shootings, ClipBlast! linked viewers to live video feeds from the local Roanoke and Richmond TV stations," said Baker. "Online video is no longer the exclusive realm of the big national news organizations."