Video clips are short clips of video, usually part of a longer piece.

Video clips in digital format are often found on the internet where the massive influx of new video clips during 2006 was hailed as a new phenomenon having a profound impact on both the internet and other forms of media. Sources for video clips include news and sporting events, historical videos, music videos, television programmes, film trailers and vlogs. Webvideo in its current form distinguishes itself from what is mostly known as video on demand mainly in terms of technology, interface and cost for the user. The current hype in online video viewing only arose when sites were introduced that offered free hosting for the high-bandwidth content and the possibility to easily integrate these into personal Blogs or websites. This enabled online videos to cross over into the mainstream. The arrival of these sites also gave rise to more widespread use of the name webvideo. Video on demand however, is more closely associated with paid content of film studios, online video stores and cable providers. Video on demand also specifically references videos that start at a moment of the user's choice, as opposed to streaming, multicast and webcams in which the data is sent to the user live by a server.

The term is also more loosely used to mean any short video less than the length of a traditional television programme.

With the proliferation of online news sites, whose appetite for content is becoming increasingly voracious, PR agencies are now making use of video clips (or VisClips.1) as a new opportunity for clients to get their messages across.

On the Internet

With the spread of broadband Internet access, video clips have become very popular online. By mid 2006 there were tens of millions of video clips available online, with new websites springing up focusing entirely on offering free video clip to users and many established and corporate sites adding video clip content to their websites. With the spread of broadband Internet access, video clips have become very popular online. Whereas most of this content is non-exclusive and available on competing sites, some companies produce all their own videos and do not rely on the work of outside companies or amateurs.

While some video clips are taken from established media sources, community or individual-produced clips are becoming more common. Some individuals host their created works on vlogs, which are video blogs. The use of internet video is growing very fast. Between March and July of the year 2006 YouTube alone grew from 30 to 100 million views of videos per day. 2 More recent developments includes the BBC's iPlayer, which was released for open beta testing in July 2007.