Online video viewing jumps 34 percent

Americans appear to be getting more comfortable watching videos online--and Google is the clear winner.

Internet users in the U.S. watched 12.7 billion online videos in November, an increase of 34 percent versus a year ago, according to numbers released Monday by market researcher ComScore.

Thanks to YouTube, Google Sites retained the crown as the top U.S. video property with nearly 5.1 billion videos viewed--or about 40 percent of all videos viewed online--with the video-sharing site accounting for more than 98 percent of Google's traffic. Fox Interactive Media was a distant second with 439 million videos watched (or 3.5 percent), followed by Viacom Digital with 325 million videos watched (2.6 percent).

The data also showed that 77 percent of all U.S. Internet users had viewed online videos in 2008, and that the average online video viewer watched 273 minutes of video.

That's all good news for sites like YouTube and Hulu that are trying to build an online ad market around video. One analyst firm expects the market for video ads to grow 45 percent to $850 million this year.

An eMarketer study released in December forecast more growth in years to come: $1.25 billion in 2010; $1.85 billion in 2011; $3 billion in 2012; and $4.6 billion in 2013.

(Credit: ComScore)

[iff2mastamatt]

Hulu is a must watch site. I think it's the best in terms of organization and overall quality.

[bakedpatato]

agreed. Screw my TV, I can watch Hulu whenever I want

[zato_3]

They also seem to have a very good network of shills and astroturfers.

[jackdaniels08]

YouTube is the goto site! Amazing community and things you'll never see anywhere else, not on TV or DVD and it is adding another dimension (community) and redefining media/community space. Hulu is pretty good but it's pretty much stuff you can watch on TV or DVD and there really isn't any community in Hulu. BTW, you will not see shows or movies by Disney/ABC or CBS/Viacom/Paramount on Hulu.

[forever4now]

Video viewing is going to explode, as "smart" mobile devices become more pervasive.

Imagine being in a sports stadium and being able to watch an instant replay on your smartphone. Imagine watching the news or the TV program you missed last night, during your train ride to work. Why just listen to a song, when you can watch the music video?

The mobile networks better be beefing up their networks, in preparation for this.

[james0511]

I've been using nakedtube.com recently a lot personally ;) ... super fast and no ads yet either!

[davidbeking]

amazing....

google is a forced to be reckoned with.

truly a monopoly? maybe?

40% of video share? are you kidding?

I want to work with google!

David King

http://davidbeking.com

[LehdMedia]

It's going to become about good quality content, like what you would see on TV just in a shorter time frame. The other great thing about online video is the ability to add clickability to make the video interactive. Check out www.lehdmedia.com

[Indiana_nate]

I love Hulu. The video quality is awesome. NBC and CBS are getting better about airing TV shows you may have missed too. I stopped watching The Unit on TV. I couldn't ever tell when it was going to start because of sports over runs.

ESPN is lame for video content. It is difficult to find stuff and their teeny little windows are ridiculous.