Some 180 million US Internet users each watched an average 18.5 hours of OTT online video in July. Total viewing hours set a record at 6.9 billion viewing sessions, according to data from the latest comScore Video Metrix service, a record that’s likely to be broken successively as OTT online viewing continues to spread and grow.
Google sites, primarily YouTube, remains the dominant OTT video provider, racking up more than 158 million unique viewersin July – a whopping 87.6% of total unique viewers – and recording just over 3 billion viewing sessions, a market share of some 43.7%. Each viewer spent an average 353 minutes (~ 5.88 hours) watching YouTube videos in July. Hulu was the only other OTT video channel that came even close, with each viewer spending an average 205.5 minutes (3.43 hours) on the site, according to the Video Metrix report.
Second ranked VEVO’s July viewing sessions tally came in at more than 502.5 million. More than 62 million unique viewers spent an average 66 minutes watching VEVO videos on the site in July.
Facebook ranked third in July with 51.45 million unique viewers, ~186.4 million viewing sessions and an average 17.9 minutes per viewer. Microsoft ranked fourth with ~49.5 million unique viewers, more than 308 million viewing sessions and 39 minutes per viewer.
Adding to the service’s depth of view into the underlying data, comScore’s service now provides YouTube Partner Reporting, which for the first time reveals OTT video viewership across hundreds of YouTube partners and their channels.
Initial data from the YouTube Partner Reporting service showed that VEVO@YouTube attracted nearly 60 million unique viewers in July. They watched nearly 845 million videos, spending an average 65.8 minutes doing so. Warner Music’s YouTube channel attracted more than 31 million unique viewers, who watched more than 197 million videos with an average 28.5 minutes per viewing session.
Machinima’s YouTube channel attracted 16.9 million viewers, each watching an average 72.7 minutes (1.2 hours) in July, the highest engagement recorded. Maker Studios’ attracted more than 11.4 million viewers, who watched nearly 102 million videos for an average 38.1 minutes. Demand Media’s YouTube channel attracted 15.2 million viewers, who watched nearly 46.2 million videos for an average 12.2 minutes per viewing session.
YouTube channel partners such as Maker Studios are especially attractive to niche audiences, in Maker’s case those 12-24 years old. Seventy percent of IGN’s audience was made up of males. Similarly, 83% of Revision3’s shows were male, while women made up more than 66% of time spent viewing Alloy’s YouTube videos, according to the report. Seventy-five percent of Howcast’s viewing audience had households with children.
As is true for broadcast digital media, advertising drives revenue in the OTT video space, and U.S. OTT viewers watched more than 5.3 billion video ads in July. Hulu produced the most video ad impressions at 963 million. Adap.tv ranked second overall and first among video ad exchanges/networks with 674 million ad views. Tremor Video ranked third with 639 million, with BrightRoll Video Network fourth at 522 million.
Total time spend viewing online OTT ads amounted to more than 2.4 billion minutes in July, reaching 49% of the US population an average of 35.9 times, according to comScore’s report. Those watching Hulu spent the most time watching ads at 409 million minutes, and Hulu had the highest video ad frequency with an average 40.4 during the month.
Other findings in the report include:
- 86.0 percent of the U.S. Internet audience viewed online video.
- The duration of the average online content video was 5.3 minutes, while the average online video ad was 0.5 minutes.
- Video ads accounted for 12.4 percent of all videos viewed and 1.2 percent of all minutes spent viewing video online.
