170m watch online video in US

comScore has released data from the comScore Video Metrix service showing that 170 million U.S. Internet users watched online video content in February for an average of 13.6 hours per viewer.

The total U.S. Internet audience engaged in more than 5.0 billion viewing sessions during the course of the month.

Top 10 Video Content Properties by Unique Viewers

Google Sites, driven primarily by video viewing at YouTube.com, ranked as the top online video content property in February with 141.1 million unique viewers. Microsoft Sites captured the #2 ranking (up from #7) with 48.8 million viewers, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 46.7 million viewers. Facebook.com came in fourth with nearly 46.7 million viewers, while VEVO ranked fifth with 45.9 million viewers. Google Sites had the highest number of viewing sessions with 1.8 billion, and average time spent per viewer at 262 minutes, or 4.4 hours.

Top U.S. Online Video Properties by Video Content Views Ranked by Unique Video Viewers February 2011 Total U.S. ‚ Home/Work/University Locations Source: comScore Video Metrix

Property

Total Unique Viewers (000)

Viewing Sessions (000)

Minutes per Viewer

Total Internet : Total Audience

169,646

5,038,485

816.4

Google Sites

141,065

1,829,662

261.6

Microsoft Sites

48,812

297,731

46.5

Yahoo! Sites

46,714

200,088

36.3

Facebook.com*

46,661

170,319

18.5

VEVO

45,917

222,110

86.7

Viacom Digital

45,214

229,856

74.2

AOL, Inc.

38,773

137,362

23.1

Turner Digital

27,447

87,652

25.3

Hulu

27,257

143,461

224.3

NBC Universal

24,185

53,136

20.4

*Facebook.com experienced a positive step-change in its data this month due to the inclusion of an additional video serving location that was not previously credited to Facebook.

Top 10 Video Ad Properties by Video Ads Viewed

Americans viewed 3.8 billion video ads in February, with Hulu generating the highest number of video ad impressions at more than 1.1 billion. Tremor Media Video Network ranked second overall (and highest among video ad networks) with 548.3 million ad views, followed by ADAP.TV (396 million) and SpotXchange Video Ad Network (343 million). Time spent watching videos ads totaled 1.7 billion minutes during the month, with Hulu delivering the highest duration of video ads at 454 million minutes. Video ads reached 42 percent of the total U.S. population an average of 30 times during the month. Hulu also delivered the highest frequency of video ads to its viewers with an average of 48 over the course of the month.

Top U.S. Online Video Properties by Video Ads* Viewed Ranked by Video Ads Viewed February 2011 Total U.S. ‚ Home/Work/University Locations Source: comScore Video Metrix

Property

Video Ads (000)

Total Ad Minutes (MM)

Frequency (Ads per Viewer)

% Reach Total U.S. Population

Total Internet : Total Audience

3,829,869

1,661

30.2

42.0%

Hulu

1,131,047

454

48.1

7.8%

Tremor Media Video Network**

548,323

336

9.0

20.1%

ADAP.TV**

395,864

236

8.2

16.1%

SpotXchange Video Ad Network**

342,878

217

9.7

11.7%

Viacom Digital

284,767

131

11.7

8.0%

BrightRoll Video Network** †

273,190

157

5.1

17.8%

CBS Interactive

227,808

74

10.1

7.4%

Microsoft Sites

208,799

92

9.2

7.5%

ABC Television

171,359

71

20.9

2.7%

Undertone**

154,191

88

8.1

6.3%

*Video ads include streaming-video advertising only and do not include other types of video monetization, such as overlays, branded players, matching banner ads, homepage ads, etc.

**Indicates video ad network

†BrightRoll Video Network reported an internal tagging error that led to a potential undercounting of their videos.

Other notable findings from February 2011 include: