'Net Features : hulu

Half of U.S. Views Online Video Ads

Michael Garrity — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 17:30:00 GMT

Digital analytics firm comScore unveiled its August Web video rankings recently which show that, among other things, Americans watch a lot of videos on the Internet.

Without question, most videos that are viewed online are watched on YouTube; in fact, the Google-owned video streaming site racked up a total of 162 million unique visitors in the month of August. VEVO came in second with 62 million viewers and Facebook, believe it or not, was the third most popular video site on the Internet with 51.6 million people watching videos. Following the social network were Viacom Digital (fourth), Microsoft (fifth), Yahoo (sixth) and AOL (seventh), though on the whole, unique video watchers were on the rise across the board.

In fact, the total number of viewing sessions in August reached an all-time high as there were 6.9 billion sessions recorded during the month. YouTube and Google Sites hosted just over half of them.

What's more, approximately 85.8 percent of the U.S. "Internet audience" watched videos online in August, and the average Web video watcher took in approximately 18 hours of content. YouTube led the race, with an average of 5.7 hours of engagement per user, while Hulu came in second with an average of 3.2 hours.

And while that data is all well and good, it's not exactly useful to Web businesses or Internet marketers, at least until one considers the role that advertising plays in all of that video watching.

comScore calculates that there were over 5.6 billion video ads watched by Americans in just one month (to put it in perspective, the world's total population is just under 7 billion people). Statistically, this means that half of the population of the U.S. were exposed to video advertising an average of 37.6 times, and the total time spent watching video advertisements adds up to over 2.5 billion minutes. Remember, this is all in a single month.

Video ads made up about 13.4 percent of all videos viewed in August and account for about 1.3 percent of the minutes spent watching online videos.

Of course, what this ultimately means is that online video advertisers can reach a whole lot of people.

The Video Race: Who’s Winning?

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 17:36:00 GMT

Comscore today released data from its Video Metrix service showing that U.S. Internet users watched an average of 13.6 hours of online video content in February 2011, engaging in more than 5.0 billion viewing sessions.

As you might imagine, when it comes to the top online video properties by video content views, the usual suspects appear. Google Sites, driven primarily by video viewing at YouTube.com, ranked as the top online video content property in February with 141.1 million unique viewers. Microsoft Sites captured the #2 ranking (up from #7) with 48.8 million viewers, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 46.7 million viewers. Facebook.com came in fourth with nearly 46.7 million viewers, while VEVO ranked fifth with 45.9 million viewers. Google Sites had the highest number of viewing sessions with 1.8 billion, and average time spent per viewer at 262 minutes, or 4.4 hours.

For those struggling with video content, video advertising is coming on strong. In fact, Video ads accounted for 12.4 percent of all videos viewed and 1.2 percent of all minutes spent viewing video online.

According to Comscore, Americans viewed 3.8 billion video ads in February. Hulu generated the highest number of video ad impressions at more than 1.1 billion. Tremor Media Video Network ranked second overall (and highest among video ad networks) with 548.3 million ad views, followed by ADAP.TV (396 million) and SpotXchange Video Ad Network (343 million). Time spent watching videos ads totaled 1.7 billion minutes during the month, with Hulu delivering the highest duration of video ads at 454 million minutes. Video ads reached 42 percent of the total U.S. population an average of 30 times during the month. Hulu also delivered the highest frequency of video ads to its viewers with an average of 48 over the course of the month.

Hulu Surpasses 1.2 Billion Monthly Video Ad Impressions

Linc Wonham — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 12:00:00 GMT

Americans viewed 5.9 billion video ads in December, with Hulu generating the highest number of video ad impressions at more than 1.2 billion, according to Friday’s release of the comScore Video Metrix.

Tremor Media Video Network ranked second overall (and highest among video ad networks) with 1.0 billion ad views, followed by ADAP.TV (682 million) and BrightRoll Video Network (588 million). Video ads reached 49 percent of the total U.S. population an average of 39.8 times during the month. Hulu delivered the highest frequency of video ads to its viewers with an average of 47.1 over the course of the month.

The top video ad networks in terms of their potential reach of the total U.S. population were Tremor Media at 51.4 percent, BrightRoll Video Network at 40.6 percent and Break Media at 39.7 percent. Nearly 85 percent (84.6) of the U.S. Internet audience viewed online video in the month of December.

Google Sites, driven primarily by video viewing at YouTube, ranked as the top online video content property in December with 144.8 million unique viewers, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 53.1 million viewers.
The duration of the average online content video was 5.0 minutes, while the average online video ad was 0.4 minutes. Video ads accounted for 16.4 percent of all videos viewed and 1.6 percent of all minutes spent viewing video online.

An estimated 172 million U.S. Internet users watched online video content in December for an average of 14.6 hours per viewer. The total U.S. Internet audience engaged in nearly 5.2 billion viewing sessions during the course of the month.

Online Video Advertising Entering a Golden Age

Mike Phillips — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 19:00:00 GMT

It appears that online video advertising is no longer in the realm of "experimental media buys" but has fully entered the mainstream. And major profits are to be had.

According to media research firm Borrell Associates, streaming video advertising is set to grow more than 60 percent -- reaching $5.6 billion next year. And this growth is not limited to big agencies or businesses with massive budgets. According to Borrell, two of every five video ad dollars spent will come from local advertisers.

A separate report earlier this year from eMarketer predicted $1.5 billion in online video ad spend for 2010, and $5 billion by 2014 -- behind Borrell's predictions but still showing tremendous growth. While the numbers might not match up, one thing is clear -- online video advertising is hitting its stride.

Another strong indication? Hulu's CEO, Jason Kilar, told Bloomberg that ad revenue had already topped $100 million this year for the streaming video site. That's ahead of a rumored IPO for Hulu, which is hearing estimates of $2 billion or more. The last video site to garner over $1 billion was YouTube when it was purchased by Google in 2006. And we all know how that has turned out.

This is good news for every Web business. As online video consumption has risen, so has the prominence of streaming advertisements. As such, consumers have become quite accustomed to (and accepting of) these ads and more than willing to sit through 15 or 30 seconds to get the content they want. What's more, the explosion of smartphones, launch of the iPad and the pending influx of more tablet devices set to hit the market in mere months gives users even more opportunity to watch online video away from the confinements of a desktop computer. In fact, in a recent survey of 31,000 consumers conducted by Texterity and audited by BPA, of those who own iPads, a full 72 percent said they watch video on the iPad.

The takeaway here is that video is not a luxury for online businesses -- it has quickly become an integral part of the publishing and advertising landscape. Video is easy to create and distribute, and there is real opportunity to monetize on these videos. Consumers are watching video at a record pace, too -- a real opportunity to advertise your business to an active, engaged and captive audience.

Want to get involved in online video advertising? Check out BrightRoll, SpotXchange, VideoEgg and, of course, advertising on YouTube.

Hulu Will Be First to Launch New Video Ad Format

Linc Wonham — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 16:00:00 GMT

With online video gaining an increasingly bigger share of Internet users’ time and attention, online video advertisers find themselves at a critical turning point. A new technology developed by VivaKi may very well determine the course for the entire industry, especially since it is receiving significant support from many of the major Web video publishers.

Hulu, Yahoo and AOL are among the online video publishers that will be offering users the opportunity to choose which ads they watch before or during a video. Hulu will be the first to deploy the technology — called ASq — presently targeting a Sept. 15 launch date.

Instead of pre-determined pre-roll and mid-roll ads running automatically, the publishers will give users two or three options to choose from. The intention is to provide a better viewing experience for the user as well as a higher ROI for the advertiser. VivaKi’s own research — backed by seven of the Web’s top video publishers — found click-through rates to be 240 percent higher with the option-based system than with standard pre-roll ads. “Top-of-mind awareness” was said to be 438 percent higher, and purchase intent rose to about 44 percent.

The process for viewers will be simple. After Sept. 15, Hulu users will be able to select an ad from two or three choices, and if no selection is made one of the ads will run automatically by default. It’s not surprising to see how the process would increase engagement and even purchase intent, and it’s hard not to see consumers responding favorably to the platform. How advertisers react will ultimately be decided by the performance of their ads.

Besides Hulu, additional publishers currently committed to the format include Yahoo, AOL, MSNBC, Discovery, CBS and video ad network BBE, all of which contributed financially to VivaKi’s research. Keep your eyes open for Hulu’s deployment in mid-September for what may become the new industry standard in online video advertising.

Online Video: Is the Party Over?

Mike Phillips — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 20:35:00 GMT

A look at recent Compete data shows that just about every major online video portal lost traffic last month. Take a look at the numbers, from Compete's February 2010 data.

However, YouTube recently reported that users are uploading six hours worth of video per minute -- a new high. So, while YouTube's upload numbers support that online video is still going strong, its unique visitor count -- along with the other major portals -- shows a significant drop. What, exactly, is going on here?

The key word might just be "portals."

Take the case of Viacom and Hulu. While the major reason cited for Viacom pulling popular series' The Daily Show and The Colbert Report from Hulu was not seeing eye-to-eye on revenue and advertising models, there's an underlying theme; one that might help explain the dropoff in visitors to video destination sites. The thing is, if users want to watch the aforementioned television shows online, they already know where to go -- ComedyCentral.com. And if that's the case, who needs Hulu? Who needs YouTube? Well, unless you have the brand equity of a Comedy Central, or a hit show like The Colbert Report ... you do.

The fact is, users have become so accustomed to online video that they have come to expect it on websites across the Internet. And one of the biggest reasons users can find video just about anywhere is that publishers can embed video from portals and give users the option to play it directly on the page. And they do this liberally (rather than linking), in part because they want to keep visitors on their websites.

Consider these statements, from a recent YouTube blog post (my emphasis): "In fact, almost every popular video on the site is first made famous by embeds on the Web. That number can be as high as 50% of views in the first 48 hours, kicking off a great cycle." If this is a trend on the most popular video site on the Internet, you can expect it to ring true with other sites, too. That means your online videos need to be optimized and distributed across multiple portals in order to be found by those who might decide to embed it and share it with their audiences.

And don't count out the effect of social media. People are posting videos on Facebook, MySpace and through links on Twitter. In July 2009, Facebook hit the one billion videos-viewed-per-month mark.

Then there's this long-tail statistic from comScore's 2009 US Digital Year in Review: More than half (52 percent) of videos watched online are viewed on video sites that do not rank in the top 25 online video properties. Which all begs the question, where are your videos? Or, perhaps more important, where aren't they?

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Hulu Will Charge in 2010 But Will Consumers Pay?

MaureenA — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:00:00 GMT

Current TV reports that Hulu will start charging for online videos in 2010. The news comes out of a summit in New York City this week where Chase Carey, deputy chairman of News Corp. said the company would likely offer a subscription model for online viewing starting next year. Currently the online video site provides videos of TV shows and movies for free.

This news comes the same day eMarketer released information about a new survey by The Diffusion Group on fee versus free online video. According to the results, only 4.6 percent of respondents said they would “definitely” pay for online TV service whereas 30.7 percent "definitely" would not. And, 6.7 percent would “definitely” pay for movie streaming, whereas 22.3 percent definitely would not.

The rest of the survey breaks down for paid TV viewing: 18 percent somewhat likely to pay; 23.7 percent neither likely nor unlikely; 22.9 percent somewhat unlikely. And the break down for paid movie watching is: 24.8 percent somewhat likely to pay; 26.1 neither likely nor unlikely; and 20.2 somewhat unlikely.

The juxtaposition of these two announcements on the same day is interesting. And, the trend of online viewership is growing as numbers from comScore keep hitting record numbers.

So, would you be willing to pay to watch online videos? Does your answer change for TV vs. movies?

UPDATE: Christina Lee from Hulu responded to our request for confirmation about the news from Current TV. "Hulu’s mission has always been to help people find and enjoy the world’s premium, professionally produced content. We continue to believe that the ad-supported, free service is the one that resonates most with the largest group of users and any possible new business models would serve to complement our existing offering. There are no details or timelines to share regarding our future product roadmap," says Christina Lee, Hulu.

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YouTube Rules, Hulu Rises

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 16:49:00 GMT

Comscore released its October 2008 data from its Video Metrix service today, reporting that U.S. Internet users viewed 13.5 billion online videos during the month, representing an increase of 45 percent year-over-year.

Perhaps the most interesting data tidbit is that Hulu moved up to the sixth position in the rankings (235 million videos viewed, which is a 1.7 percent share). Of course, Google sites (which include YouTube and its 40 percent share of all videos viewed) once again ranked as the top U.S. video property with nearly 5.4 billion videos viewed (representing a 40 percent share of all videos viewed).

Fox Interactive Media ranked second with 520 million videos (3.8 percent), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 363 million (2.7 percent), and Viacom Digital with 305 million (2.3 percent).