• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, April 4, 2013

As consumers get cozier with digital services -- and those services continue to improve -- major differences are emerging in the time they spend with live content compared to video-on-demand.

In fact, people now tune into live video 2.5 times longer than VOD content on broadcast and entertainment networks, according to new findings from video services firm Ooyala.

There is no doubt that these consumption shifts are reshaping ad budgets, said Jay Fulcher, CEO at Ooyala. Indeed, such disparities “drive [broadcasters] programming and monetization strategies,” he said.

As such, everyone is getting in on the live content act. Just this week, Discovery Communications launched Animal Planet L!VE -- a network of unfiltered, round-the-clock Web streams, featuring all manner of animal footage.

JB Perrette, chief digital officer at Discovery Communications, said live video has become an essential component of the company’s digital strategy. “Live is a key way that we connect with our audiences,” he said.

Video leader YouTube debuted its Live service in 2011, and despite limited partnerships, parent company Google reports that more than 72 hours of video are now uploaded to the service every minute.

Compared to traditional TV, Ooyala also found distinct online viewing hours among consumers. Prime viewing hours for online broadcast content are noon on weekdays and 9 p.m. on weekends.

In particular, tablet viewing spikes on weekends, when viewers spend twice as much time watching video from broadcasters online.

Sure to surprise many Web watchers, more than 75% of time spent watching mobile video in March was with long-form content -- or videos longer than 10 minutes in length, Ooyala reports.

Plus, nearly half of all tablet video consumption was with video at least 30 minutes in length.