Articles

27.1.2011 Online video ads extend reach in US

The typical US viewer watched 14.6 hours of online video in December 2010, with ads served to sites such as YouTube also increasing their reach over the course of the month. According to the new comScore figures, 172 million web users, 84.6% of the nation's total internet audience, watched some form of online video content. In all, there were 5.2bn viewing sessions. Both of these totals held broadly steady from November 2010. But the number of online video ads viewed increased over the month, with 48.6% of the population reached by the communications in November and 49.1% in December. Overall, 16.4% of total videos viewed were ads, and 1.6% of the time spent by viewers watching video was spent watching an ad.

Google sites, which include YouTube, maintained their stranglehold on the sector, beating rivals in both unique viewer numbers (144.7m in December), viewing sessions (1.9bn) and minutes watched per viewer (873.1, or eight and a half hours). Google's nearest rival in viewing sessions was music video network VEVO, on 266m, while Yahoo! video sites came closest for unique viewers on 53m.

B.L. 27.1.2011