The most popular video site in the planet has just launched a new ad format, currently available in the U.K., France, Italy, Canada, Germany, Spain and The Netherlands– YouTube Promoted Videos. The new ad format allows for advertisers to choose, through the AdWords interface, a promoted video ad template so that when a YouTube viewer clicks on your promotion, they see your video. You only pay when people click to see your video – not when people see your promotion.

The YouTube Promoted Video ad option consists of a thumbnail on the left and three lines of text on the right. When a user clicks on a video ad, he/she will be taken to the YouTube page or channel with the video. Any user can promote ads on YouTube for just a few dollars a day, though most of the promotions on the site are run by larger organizations.

According to Nielsen, online video streaming is growing slowly but surely. This September, total video streams increased 24.8% compared to 11.2 billion streams in the same period last year. YouTube in particular leads over 50% of all video streams in the U.S., a total of 6.7 billion streams.

Just like sponsored links on Google, advertisers will be able to pay for their Promoted Video when users click on the ad. In addition, advertisers will also be able to add a ‘call-to-action’ clickable overlay on videos to engage people and drive them to their websites.

Watch the YouTube Promoted Video presentation:

Today Amazon.com announced the launch of its Video on Demand online store where users will be able to pick over an array of 40,000 movies and television programs right off the bat.

You choose, you order, it streams.

Clearly it’s a lot better than most internet video stores, won’t name call, which require you to chill in front of your computer for hours before you succeed to download onto your hard drive. You’ll find that the majority of people don’t have the time or patience to sit around and wait for downloads to complete.

“Our goal is to create an immersive experience where people can’t help but get caught up in how exciting it is to simply watch a movie right from Amazon.com with a click of the button,” claims Amazon’s digital media VP, Bill Carr. I couldn’t have explained it better.

To support high quality streaming and downloading, Amazon.com has partnered up with Sony as a start, in order to enable its Internet video store into the Sony Bravia TVs, through Sony Bravia’s Video link device. Other deals will be on their way in conjunction with other manufacturers and Internet devices.

Some cool features:

Less downloading time

You can store all your video selections in “Your Video Library”

You can log on to any computer, anywhere, or device and be able to access the desired video

2-minute previews will begin running the moment you visit the title of your selection

No Commercials!