comScore Releases October 2012 U.S. Online Video Rankings

BrightRoll Video Network Climbs to #1 in Video Ad Ranking, While CBS Interactive Cracks Top Ten in Video Content Ranking

RESTON, VA – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, released data from the comScore Video Metrix service showing that 183 million U.S. Internet users watched more than 37 billion online content videos in October, while video ad views reached nearly 11 billion.

Top 10 Video Content Properties by Unique Viewers

Google Sites, driven primarily by video viewing at YouTube.com, ranked as the top online video content property in October with 153.2 million unique viewers, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 55.3 million, NDN with 53.2 million, VEVO with 53.1 million and AOL, Inc. with 53.1 million. More than 37 billion video content views occurred during the month, with Google Sites generating the highest number at 13 billion, followed by AOL, Inc. with 711 million. Google Sites had the highest average engagement among the top ten properties.

Top U.S. Online Video Content Properties Ranked by Unique Video Viewers
October 2012
Total U.S. – Home and Work Locations
Content Videos Only (Ad Videos Not Included)
Source: comScore Video Metrix
Property Total Unique Viewers (000) Videos (000)* Minutes per Viewer
Total Internet : Total Audience  182,574 37,242,927 1,254.4
Google Sites 153,212 13,028,148 399.5
Yahoo! Sites 55,253 496,318 53.1
NDN 53,215 550,884 74.3
VEVO 53,105 628,958 40.5
AOL, Inc. 53,089 711,008 45.6
Facebook.com 47,870 252,934 13.3
Viacom Digital 40,914 391,700 43.8
Microsoft Sites 37,214 432,457 43.8
CBS Interactive 31,805 297,749 59.9
Grab Media, Inc. 31,647 157,946 27.5

*A video is defined as any streamed segment of audiovisual content, including both progressive downloads and live streams. For long-form, segmented content, (e.g. television episodes with ad pods in the middle) each segment of the content is counted as a distinct video stream.Video views are inclusive of both user-initiated and auto-played videos that are viewed for longer than 3 seconds.

Top 10 Video Ad Properties by Video Ads Viewed

Americans viewed nearly 11 billion video ads in October, with each of the top 5 video ad properties delivering more than 1-billion video ads. BrightRoll Video Network captured first place with more than 1.8 billion ads, followed by Google Sites with more than 1.7 billion, Hulu with 1.5 billion, Liverail.com with 1.2 billion and Adap.tv with 1.1 billion. Time spent watching video ads totaled 3.8 billion minutes, with BrightRoll Video Network delivering the highest duration of video ads at 897 million minutes. Video ads reached 52 percent of the total U.S. population an average of 68 times during the month. Hulu delivered the highest frequency of video ads to its viewers with an average of 59, while Google Sites delivered an average of 19 ads per viewer.

Top U.S. Online Video Ad Properties Ranked by Video Ads* Viewed
October 2012
Total U.S. – Home and Work Locations
Ad Videos Only (Content Videos Not Included)
Source: comScore Video Metrix
Property Video Ads (000) Total Ad Minutes (MM) Frequency (Ads per Viewer) % Reach Total U.S. Population
Total Internet : Total Audience  10,887,079 3,820 68.2 51.9
BrightRoll Video Network** 1,827,703 897 12.0 49.3
Google Sites 1,750,845 140 19.1 29.8
Hulu 1,543,196 618 58.8 8.5
LiveRail.com† 1,241,123 540 12.4 32.6
ADAP.TV† 1,091,077 560 9.7 36.4
Auditude, Inc.** 910,734 220 13.4 22.2
TubeMogul Video Ad Platform† 832,198 372 8.8 30.9
Tremor Video** 790,646 384 9.0 28.5
Specific Media** 766,570 339 6.4 39.2
AdExcite Video Ad Network** 728,123 303 8.0 29.5

*Video ads include streaming-video advertising only and do not include other types of video monetization, such as overlays, branded players, matching banner ads, etc.
**Indicates video ad network
†Indicates video ad exchange/DSP/SSP

Top 10 YouTube Partner Channels by Unique Viewers

The October 2012 YouTube partner data revealed that video music channel VEVO maintained the top position in the ranking with 52.2 million viewers. Machinima climbed into the #2 position with 35.1 million viewers, followed by Maker Studios Inc. with 28.9 million, Warner Music with 26.3 million and Fullscreen with 25.1 million. Among the top 10 YouTube partners, Machinima demonstrated the highest engagement (49 minutes per viewer) followed by VEVO (39 minutes per viewer). VEVO streamed the greatest number of videos (603 million), followed by Machinima (521 million).

Top YouTube Partner Channels* Ranked by Unique Video Viewers
October 2012
Total U.S. – Home and Work Locations
Content Videos Only (Ad Videos Not Included)
Source: comScore Video Metrix
Property Total Unique Viewers (000) Videos (000) Minutes per Viewer
VEVO @ YouTube 52,183 603,474 39.2
Machinima @ YouTube 35,091 520,903 48.9
Maker Studios Inc. @ YouTube 28,896 295,979 35.8
Warner Music @ Youtube 26,315 139,987 17.5
Fullscreen @ YouTube 25,141 138,436 16.1
BroadbandTV @ YouTube 12,806 72,537 18.0
ygent @ YouTube 11,680 34,846 10.3
Alloy Digital @ YouTube 7,959 37,102 15.3
Rightster @ YouTube 7,579 17,148 6.3
disney abcnews @ YouTube 7,380 14,198 7.1

*YouTube Partner Reporting based on online video content viewing and does not include claimed user-generated content

Other notable findings from October 2012 include:

  • 86 percent of the U.S. Internet audience viewed online video.
  • The duration of the average online content video was 6.1 minutes, while the average online video ad was 0.4 minutes.
  • Video ads accounted for 22.6 percent of all videos viewed and 1.6 percent of all minutes spent viewing video online.

About comScore
comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital business analytics. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.