Hulu jumps into online video's top 3
NBC and News Corp.-owned site increased video views 14% last month, report says
By Danny King -- Video Business, 4/28/2009
APRIL 28 | Hulu was the third-most popular U.S. online video site last year, marking its highest ranking since NBC Universal and News Corp. launched the site 13 months ago.
More than 380 million videos were viewed on Hulu in March, up 14% from February, ComScore said in a statement today. The growth rate of Hulu, which attracted 41.6 million unique viewers last month, outpaced that of both online video leader YouTube and the overall online video industry, whose streamed videos both increased 11% from February.
Hulu's growth illustrates the growing popularity of long-form videos over the Internet, which Nielsen said last week is the second-fastest-growing form of Web usage after social networking. The average Hulu video was almost twice as long as the overall average online video, according to ComScore.
Overall, Google's YouTube remained the dominant player, accounting for about 49% of all videos viewed online and about 59% of the people who watched them. YouTube earlier this month said it would start offering free full-length movies and television shows on its site after reaching deals with content providers including Sony, Lionsgate and Starz.
The popularity of long-form video sites boosted the amount of time people spent watching videos in February by 23% from a year earlier, Nielsen said in a report earlier this month. Additionally, the average video stream in February was about two-and-a-half minutes, or 22% longer than a year earlier, Nielsen said.
