Online Video Viewing Still Rising

Reposting eMarketer + Comscore data:

"Internet users in the US watched 11.5 billion online videos in March 2008 , up 13% over February 2008 and 64% over March 2007, according to comScore Video Metrix. That is an average of 83 videos watched per viewer during March."

"Nearly 139 million U.S. Internet users watched an average of 83 videos per viewer in March"

"Other notable findings from March 2008 include:

• 73.7 percent of the total U.S.      Internet audience viewed online video.
• 84.8 million viewers watched      4.3 billion videos on YouTube.com (50.4 videos per viewer).
• 47.7 million viewers watched      400 million videos on MySpace.com (8.4 videos per viewer).
• The average online video      duration was 2.8 minutes.
• The average online video      viewer watched 235 minutes of video."

"Nielsen Online also measured online video viewing in March 2008, with different results. Nielsen, which only measured streams, reported an average of 137.3 minutes of online video viewed for the month—nearly 100 minutes less than the comScore study."

"One explanation for the difference between the comScore and Nielsen data is that Nielsen did not include universities, which are home to some of the most active online video viewers.

Another possibility is that downloaded videos could include more full-length movies, which are longer than most videos, and would therefore increase the average amount of time spent watching online video in contrast to a streaming-only sample.

David Hallerman, senior analyst at eMarketer, said that online video viewing data indicated possibilities about ad-supported online video sites—but only possibilities. He noted that just because people were watching video online did not guarantee that advertising dollars would follow.

"In fact, even if downloaded longer-length videos such as movies were the missing element between comScore and Nielsen data, that video content would still be difficult to monetize through advertising," Mr. Hallerman said"