French Online Video Consumption Surges 141 Percent in the Past Year to 5.4 Billion Videos Viewed In September 2009

Google Sites Captures 34 Percent Share of French Online Video Market with 1.8 Billion Videos Viewed on YouTube.com During the Month

PARIS, France, December 1, 2009 – Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released data from the Comscore Video Metrix service indicating that 34.6 million French Internet users viewed online video in September 2009, up 36 percent versus the previous year.

“The online video market in France has rapidly expanded during the past year as Internet users demonstrate their preference for the sight, sound and motion of video for consuming online content,” said Delphine Gatignol, Comscore business development manager in France. “While the Internet is still widely used for functional reasons, increasingly it has become an entertainment channel and the continued emergence of online video is a significant driver behind this trend.”

Visitation and Engagement of Online Video up Significantly in France
France experienced widespread growth in online video consumption during the past year, as audience size and video engagement both increased significantly. The number of online video viewers increased 36 percent to 34.6 million, while the number of videos viewed grew 141 percent to 5.4 billion. The average time spent viewing videos online during the course of the month nearly doubled to 11.7 hours per viewer in September.

French Online Video Market Growth*
September 2009 vs. September 2008
Total France – Age 15+, Home & Work Locations**
Source: Comscore Video Metrix

Metric

Sep-08

Sep-09

% Change

Total Videos Viewed (000)

2,242,437

5,404,655

141%

Total Unique Viewers (000)

25,361

34,586

36%

Average Videos per Viewer

88

156

77%

Average Hours per Viewer

6.2

11.7

90%

Average Minutes per Video

4.2

4.5

7%

*Based on video content sites; excludes video server networks. Online video includes both streaming and progressive download video.
**Excludes Internet activity from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

YouTube Drives Online Video Viewing at Google Sites
Driven by the popularity of YouTube.com (which accounted for 99 percent of all videos viewed on the property), Google Sites ranked as the top video content property in September with 22.9 million viewers and 1.8 billion total videos viewed, representing a 33.5-percent share of the French online video market. French video site Dailymotion.com ranked second with 394 million videos viewed, followed by Groupe TF1 (162 million videos), Megavideo.com (160 million videos), and Facebook.com (145 million videos).

Top French Online Video Properties Ranked by Total Videos Viewed*
September 2009
Total France – Age 15+, Home and Work Locations
Source: Comscore Video Metrix

Property

Videos (000)

Unique Viewers (000)

Share of Videos (%)

Videos per Viewer

Total Internet Audience

5,404,655

34,586

100.0 %

156

Google Sites

1,812,729

22,864

33.5 %

79

Dailymotion.com

393,707

15,748

7.3 %

25

Groupe TF1

161,671

9,705

3.0 %

17

Megavideo.com

159,713

4,172

3.0 %

38

Facebook.com

145,138

9,461

2.7 %

15

Fox Interactive Media

84,018

15,887

1.6 %

5

Microsoft Sites

47,145

5,233

0.9 %

9

Megaupload.com

29,863

2,135

0.6 %

14

Orange Sites

21,422

4,316

0.4 %

5

Allocine Sites

17,830

3.437

0.3 %

5

*Rankings based on video content sites; excludes video server networks. Online video includes both streaming and progressive download video.
**Excludes Internet activity from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

Other notable findings from September 2009 include:

  • Viewers spent the longest time per video on Megaupload.com where they averaged 29.3 minutes per video.
  • The heaviest viewers of online video are males between the ages of 15-24 who watched approximately 21 hours of online video per person in September.
  • 22.9 million viewers watched 1.8 billion videos on YouTube.com (79 videos per viewer).
  • Females age 55 and older watched an average of 67 videos on YouTube.com in France, compared with males age 55 and older who watched 47 videos on the property during the month

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

Ayaan Mohamud
Comscore, Inc.
+ 44 (0) 203-111-1758
worldpress@comscore.com