Comscore Releases December 2011 U.S. Online Video Rankings

Average Viewer Watched 3 Hours of Video Content on Hulu in December

RESTON, VA, January 17, 2012 – Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released data from the Comscore Video Metrix service showing that 182 million U.S. Internet users watched online video content in December for an average of 23.2 hours per viewer. The total U.S. Internet audience viewed 43.5 billion videos.

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 December with 157.2 million unique viewers, while VEVO ranked second with 53.7 million. Yahoo! Sites ranked third with 53.3 million viewers, followed by Viacom Digital with 45.8 million and Facebook.com with 42 million. More than 43 billion videos views occurred during the month, with Google Sites generating the highest number at 21.9 billion. The average viewer watched 23.2 hours of online video content, with Google Sites (7.9 hours) and Hulu (3 hours) demonstrating the highest average engagement among the top ten properties.

Top U.S. Online Video Content Properties Ranked by Unique Video Viewers
December 2011
Total U.S. – Home and Work Locations
Content Videos Only (Ad Videos Not Included)
Source: Comscore Video Metrix

Property

Total Unique Viewers (000)

Videos (000)*

Minutes per Viewer

Total Internet : Total Audience

181,669

43,472,412

1,389.8

Google Sites

157,188

21,897,734

471.9

VEVO

53,674

801,334

68.0

Yahoo! Sites

53,328

630,605

61.0

Viacom Digital

45,764

506,140

57.5

Facebook.com

42,024

238,671

23.9

Microsoft Sites

41,133

587,842

44.8

AOL, Inc.

40,375

451,496

55.1

Hulu

31,242

776,999

181.2

Amazon Sites

27,818

95,444

17.4

Turner Digital

26,692

211,662

27.3

*A video is defined as any streamed segment of audiovisual content, including both progressive downloads and live streams. For long-form, segmented content, (e.g. television episodes with ad pods in the middle) each segment of the content is counted as a distinct video stream.

Top 10 Video Ad Properties by Video Ads Viewed

Americans viewed 7.1 billion video ads in December, with Hulu generating the highest number of video ad impressions at nearly 1.5 billion, followed by Adap.tv in second with 1.1 billion. Tremor Video ranked third with 942 million, followed by BrightRoll Video Network with 872 million and Specific Media with 496 million. Time spent watching video ads totaled more than 3 billion minutes during the month, with Adap.tv delivering the highest duration of video ads at 636 million minutes. Video ads reached 51 percent of the total U.S. population an average of 46 times during the month. Hulu delivered the highest frequency of video ads to its viewers with an average of 46.

Top U.S. Online Video Ad Properties Ranked by Video Ads* Viewed
December 2011
Total U.S. – Home and Work Locations
Ad Videos Only (Content Videos Not Included)
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

7,115,272

3,009

45.6

51.4

Hulu

1,493,649

621

46.1

10.7

Adapt.tv

1,116,051

636

13.8

26.7

Tremor Video**

941,875

525

16.8

18.5

BrightRoll Video Network**

872,188

536

7.9

36.4

Specific Media**

495,869

235

6.1

27.0

Videology**

455,733

256

8.1

18.6

AOL, Inc.

330,446

212

7.6

14.3

Undertone**

311,226

150

10.3

9.9

Auditude, Inc.**

309,981

136

8.7

11.7

Microsoft Sites

297,531

119

10.4

9.4

*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
†Indicates video ad exchange

Top 10 YouTube Partner Channels by Unique Viewers

The December 2011 YouTube partner data revealed that video music channels VEVO (53.5 million viewers) and Warner Music (31.7 million viewers) maintained the top two positions. Gaming channel Machinima ranked third with 22.7 million viewers, followed by Maker Studios with 10.4 million, FullScreen with 9.7 million and Big Frame with 8.3 million. Among the top 10 YouTube partners, VEVO demonstrated the highest engagement (67 minutes per viewer) and highest number of videos viewed (782 million), while Machinima exhibited the second highest engagement (64 minutes per viewer) and number of videos viewed (340 million).

Top YouTube Partner Channels* Ranked by Unique Video Viewers
December 2011
Total U.S. – Home and Work Locations
Content Videos Only (Ad Videos Not Included)
Source: Comscore Video Metrix

Property

Total Unique Viewers (000)

Videos (000)

Minutes per Viewer

VEVO @ YouTube

53,464

782,292

66.9

Warner Music @ Youtube

31,665

206,538

29.2

Machinima @ YouTube

22,737

340,057

63.9

Maker Studios @ YouTube

10,404

81,115

29.7

FullScreen @ YouTube

9,698

41,523

18.1

Big Frame @ YouTube

8,336

43,418

19.3

Collective @ YouTube

7,328

59,485

24.6

Demand Media @ YouTube

7,299

19,646

9.3

IGN @ YouTube

6,967

28,035

17.5

Bigpoint @ YouTube

5,772

29,015

19.8

*YouTube Partner Reporting based on online video content viewing and does not include claimed user-generated content

Other notable findings from December 2011 include:

  • 85.3 percent of the U.S. Internet audience viewed online video.
  • The duration of the average online content video was 5.8 minutes, while the average online video ad was 0.4 minutes.
  • Video ads accounted for 14.1 percent of all videos viewed and 1.2 percent of all minutes spent viewing video online.

About Comscore
Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital business analytics. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.

Contact:
Adam Lella
Comscore, Inc.
+1 (312) 775-6474
press@comscore.com