Top 10 Online Video Sites: YouTube Dominates, Hulu on the Rise

Americans viewed a record 13.5 billion online videos during the month of October - with nearly 40% of them on Google’s (GOOG) YouTube - representing a 45% increase in video watching vs. a year ago, according to October data from the comScore Video Metrix service.

Top 10 Video Properties by No. of Videos Viewed

Google Sites once again ranked as the top US video property with nearly 5.4 billion videos viewed, with YouTube.com accounting for more than 98% of all videos viewed at the property. Fox Interactive Media (NWS) ranked second with 520 million videos (3.8%), followed by Yahoo Sites (YHOO) with 363 million (2.7%), and Viacom Digital (VIA) with 305 million (2.3%).

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Hulu, a joint venture of NBC (GE) and Fox featuring full-length broadcast TV programs, ranked sixth with 235 million videos viewed (1.7%). This number has nearly doubled since July (when Hulu ranked 8th). Hulu also has the highest average duration of time per video view.

Top Online Video Properties by No. of Unique Viewers

More than 147 million US internet users watched an average of 92 videos per viewer in October. Google Sites attracted a record 100 million online video viewers - or more than two out of every three internet users who watched video during the month. Fox Interactive ranked second with 60.8 million viewers, followed by Yahoo Sites (45.2 million) and Microsoft Sites (MSFT) (30.7 million).

Additional findings from October:

• 77% of the total US internet audience viewed online video.
• The average online video viewer watched 274 minutes of video.
• More than 80% of those age 18-34 watched online video, higher than any other age segment. The average 18-34 year old online video viewer watched 4.8 hours of video during the month, also ranking above all other age segments.
• 99.5 million viewers watched 5.3 billion videos on YouTube.com (53.2 videos per viewer).
• 51.2 million viewers watched 520 million videos on MySpace.com (8.0 videos per viewer).
• The duration of the average online video is 3.0 minutes.
• The duration of the average online video viewed at Hulu was 11.6 minutes, higher than any other video property in the top ten.

Comments

[jack dee:]

Hulu has more than Comscore is telling us.


First and most importantly , hulu is already producing a revenue stream. The program quality is in place and it is easy for sponsors to tie into.
Commercials are marked and timed to let you know they are not going to mess with you, no unexpected interruptions, and the sponsors are pretty one per viewing.
It is a winning combo that may very well end up being hybrid all parties have been looking for. Hulu has an upside for broadcast too, if you miss one or two you might catch up there rather than abandon the program altogether.

Downside , perhaps it hurts broadcast television figures somewhat through cannibalization . Also there is a cost for each download unlike broadcast where the cost of sending the signal has little to do with the numbers watching.

With improved targeting, and perhaps user consent, HULU could be placing ads to just the right person at just the right time of the day, or life.
HULU could even consider premium quality downloads/bandwidth for users who "opt" into a deep profiling feature.
I think this is where online video is going. Youtube is great for fun things, clips , reviews, online learning, and cheap shots, but as of yet it is just a big sink hole sucking up money faster than a coke fiend at a strip club.
Think of Hulu as the one you just might bring home to mom, sure the other guy/girl is lots of fun but you are certainly not going to raise kids together.

(long GOOG )

2008 Dec 11 12:59 PM

[LA Tech:]

When will Google actually monitize YouTube? To date, YouTube is just another aquisition FLOP for Google.

Name any Google aquistion or in house produced product/service OTHER THAN PAID SEARCH that is financially successful?

2008 Dec 13 10:02 AM