comScore’s annual review of internet usage, out as a free download from its site this week, shows in some detail how the battle for hearts and minds in US online video is going and a surprising 179 million US Americans now watch some form of online video at least once a month.
Engagement levels have also been rising with almost 89 million people watching at least one online video on an average day in December, a number which has grown 32% from this time last year. December had a record number of video sessions, some 5.8 billion. The number of hours they spent online watching video has also risen, to 14 hours during December, a 12% rise on last year, almost 30 minutes a day.
Online TV viewing is up with Hulu driving a big chunk of this ahead of all the other major broadcast TV sites put together. In Q4 2010, Hulu accounted for 19.4 billion minutes (323 million hours) of online TV viewing, up 17% from the previous year. The five major broadcast TV sites (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and the CW) combined to account for 9.7 billion minutes (162 million hours), around half but growing faster.
All of this activity has naturally shown in the amount of video advertising that is showing on the internet with video ads now reaching 7 out of 10 Americans online and nearly 1 out of 2 each month. In December 2010, video ad networks served 5.9 billion ads, averaging 40 ads per viewer and 0.4 minutes per ad. Tremor Media Video Network took the top spot among video ad networks in December, delivering 1.0 billion ads to reach 40.8 percent of online video viewers, an average of 12 ads per viewer. BrightRoll Video Network reached 31.8 percent of online viewers, while ADAP.TV reached fewer viewers (27.1 percent) but delivered a higher number of video ad streams (681.5 million).
Back in June ComScore launched its Video Metrix 2.0 and since then there has been a consistent increase in video advertising as a percentage of total online viewing ‘ a sign of the improving monetization of the medium. According to December 2010 Video Metrix data, video ads made up 16.4% of all videos streamed, up from 12.2% when the service began in June.
Video ads now account for one in six of every video viewed, but still only make up 1.6% percent of the time spent viewing online video.