aka: The smell of sh*t is in the air, so the flies are close behind

Internet Video is now drawing TV-like audiences. As a result, a many companies are jostling to meet the growing demand for ads accompanying those online videos.

If you watched a more mainstream video on a site like AOL TV, the 15-second ad that you saw imbedded in your show might have cost that advertiser as much as $0.03 to be there. In the advertising industry jargon, that is known as a $30 CPM (or cost per thousand).

But here is the really salient point: these Internet video ads are among the highest on the Web. No wonder that research firm eMarketer recently identified online video advertising as the fastest-growing online ad format. It predicts video ad spending will grow by 71 percent this year to $225M and to $640M by 2007. By 2010, video is forecast to make up 8 percent of the total online ad market.

If you are one of the people who like to know which companies are trying to take advantage of that trend, there is a good article written by Mark Walsh about the emerging video ad networks that want to capitalize upon online video advertising. The list from that article includes Tremor Network, Brightcove, PostRoll, Lightningcast, and ValueClick.