New data released today by comScore shows a 34% increase of online video consumption by U.S. Internet users versus year ago. A total of 12.7 billion online videos were viewed during November 2008.
Not surprisingly, Google/YouTube held the top spot with a 40% share of videos viewed online. Also in the top five most visited video sites were Fox Interactive (3.5%), Viacom (2.6%), Yahoo! (2.4%) and Microsoft (2.3%).
Other tidbits from the comScore report:
- 77 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience viewed online video.
- The average online video viewer watched 273 minutes of video.
- 97 million viewers watched 5.1 billion videos on YouTube.com (52.3 videos per viewer).
- 52.5 million viewers watched 371 million videos on MySpace.com (7.1 videos per viewer).
- The duration of the average online video was 3.1 minutes.
- The duration of the average online video viewed at Hulu was 11.9 minutes, higher than any other video property in the top ten.
Online video is growing by leaps and bound across all categories. If you look beyond the comScore report, you see huge numbers of people watching streaming video on the web and, increasingly, mobile devices like the iPhone or iPod.
And it's not just teens. Adults are also voracious consumers of online video.
A recent article, Younger Viewers New Media, provides an additional snapshot of the growth of online video content consumption (Thanks Anastasia!). Among the findings:
- In October 2008, Cartoon Network reported over 6 million users visited Cartoon.com, spending an average of 34 minutes.
- AdultSwim.com, users spent over 24.4 million minutes — about 25 minutes per person — watching videos and playing games.
- MTV Reports shows are being streamed tens of millions of times each month.
As the web increasingly moves to the mobile space, it will be interesting to see if mobile video follows a similar growth trajectory to video streamed via the web. MTV reports that it's "on track to deliver about 100 million videos to mobile phones."
So are kids only watching online video? Or are they still watching "traditional" television. Pick a study, any study. It's easy to find research to back up just about any corporate, academic or political agenda.
If I had to guess, I'd say that kids consume video content both online and off. They will use whatever device--tv, iPod, computer, Hulu, network tv--is readily available to them. Remember, this is the "always-on" generation. When it comes to content, the "how" isn't nearly as important as the "when."
Related Resources
