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Tuesday, July 15, 2008

ComScore: Americans Watched 12 Billion Videos In May


Online video usage is gaining speed, growing by 45% from a year earlier and by 10% from last month. You Tube continues to be the dominate site, with a 35% share, although that leadership position appears to be slowly eroding as other sites gain more awareness and usage. In fact, their percentage dropped from 37.9% in April. Surprisingly My Space videos, as measured through Fox Interactive Media, is second, and Hulu (or as some still like to call it Hula) is in 10th place.

And while there is still a huge jump between You Tube and others, Google and You Tube must be feeling the heat as original content on sites like AOL, ABC, and Hulu, appears to have more interest and more likelihood for monetization. Those sites that can create more synergies across other media and help drive traffic to their sites will benefit more in the long run.

And while this is a snapshot for the month, the indication is that online viewing will continue to grow at a fast rate and You Tube will find its share of the pie reducing as these other sites continue to push their content. In June, Disney began showing their full length movies online; that should lead to a bump in their score. Hulu continues to put more content on their site as well and May is the first month that they were out of beta.

I'd love to know more about these online users; are they watching at the office or at home, is most viewing in the daytime or evening, do they prefer snacking or full episodes. How users are using this online content will continue to shape how usage and site preference grows.