Why Can’t The Industry Agree Upon Pre-Roll Ad Lengths? 41 Second Ads?

Is there anything about the online video industry or it's practices that anyone agrees upon? No one agrees on the size of the market or what the growth is, content owners can't agree on which type of ad formats are the most valuable or what length ads should shown for short or long form content. While watching a two and a half minute clip on NBCSports this morning, I was delivered a 41 second pre-roll ad. (Updated: NBCSports.com shares the same ad system as MSNBC.com, so the ad I saw was actually coming from MSNBC.com) How did they come up with 41 seconds as the ideal time? And why did another clip that was the same in length, then give me a 30 second ad? Why is there absolutely no consistency in this market?

The online video industry should be a lot further along then it is right now. I know when I say that many from the industry say I should focus on the positive, but seriously, the consumer experience for online video advertising right now is horrible. Nearly all ads are not targeted, content owners are not making money, content owners are cutting up content into too many pieces, and while I said two years ago that "15 Second Pre-Roll Video Ads Will Become The Standard", clearly that was wishful thinking on my part. In the last week I've gotten ads that range from 10 seconds, 15 seconds, 30 seconds, 41 seconds and 60 seconds. What is going on? How do content owners not realize the affect this has on the consumer experience?

As a consumer, I am so frustrated with the online video ad experience.