Online video viewing jumps 34% in December
By Danny King -- Video Business, 2/13/2008
FEB. 13 | U.S. online video viewing in December jumped 34% from a year earlier as the lack of new TV programming due to the Writers Guild of America strike caused people to spend more time on the Internet for entertainment, ComScore Networks reported.
Google, which acquired video site YouTube in 2006, accounted for 33% of the videos watched by U.S. viewers in December, nine times the percentage watched on the next most popular destination, Fox Interactive, the research firm said. Fox owns social-networking site MySpace. (Click for a breakdown of December viewing by service)
The typical online viewer watched 3.4 hours of videos online in December, or 72 videos with an average length of 2.8 minutes.
Almost 141 million people in the U.S. watched videos online in December, according to ComScore.
“With the writers’ strike keeping new TV episodes from reaching the airwaves, viewers have been seeking alternatives for fresh content,” ComScore executive VP of media and entertainment Erin Hunter said in a statement. WGA members last night voted to end the strike, which began Nov. 5.
YouTube accounted for more than 97% of videos watched on Google sites in December. MySpace made up 93% of December videos watched on Fox Interactive, ComScore said.
ComScore didn’t specify what percentage of videos was long-form vs. short-form, or the proportion of free to paid-for videos.
Online video market share for December
|
Property |
Share of videos |
|
Google* |
33% |
|
Fox Interactive** |
3.5% |
|
Yahoo! |
3.4% |
|
Disney/ESPN/ABC |
2.5% |
|
Viacom |
2.3% |
|
Microsoft |
1.8% |
|
Time Warner |
1.7% |
|
Other |
51.8% |
* Includes YouTube; ** Includes MySpace
