Comscore Releases August 2012 U.S. Online Video Rankings

Online Video Content Reaches All-Time High of 188 Million Viewers

RESTON, VA, September 19, 2012 – Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released data from the Comscore Video Metrix service showing that an all-time high of 188 million U.S. Internet users watched 37.7 billion online content videos in August, while video ad views totaled 9.5 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 August with 150.2 million unique viewers, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 55 million, Microsoft Sites with 53.7 million, VEVO with 49.3 million and Facebook.com with 47.7 million. Nearly 37.7 billion video content views occurred during the month, with Google Sites generating the highest number at 13.8 billion, followed by AOL, Inc. with 725 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
August 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

188,016

37,689,484

1,335.4

Google Sites

150,198

13,772,310

443.4

Yahoo! Sites

55,045

529,006

58.6

Microsoft Sites

53,671

522,426

40.6

VEVO

49,282

595,187

41.4

Facebook.com

47,717

261,212

16.1

AOL, Inc.

45,685

725,166

62.8

Viacom Digital

38,690

405,298

50.3

NDN

37,508

396,026

73.2

Grab Media, Inc.

29,928

231,550

40.6

Amazon Sites

27,874

103,926

16.0

*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 9.5 billion video ads in August, with each of the top 4 video ad properties delivering more than 1-billion video ads. Google Sites ranked first with more than 1.7 billion ads, followed by BrightRoll Video Network with 1.4 billion, Adap.tv with 1.2 billion, Hulu with 1.1 billion and SpotXchange Video Ad Marketplace with 911 million. Time spent watching video ads totaled 3.5 billion minutes, with BrightRoll Video Network delivering the highest duration of video ads at 717 million minutes. Video ads reached 54 percent of the total U.S. population an average of 58 times during the month. Hulu delivered the highest frequency of video ads to its viewers with an average of 51, while Google Sites delivered an average of 19 ads per viewer.

Top U.S. Online Video Ad Properties Ranked by Video Ads* Viewed
August 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

9,508,826

3,545

57.6

53.7

Google Sites

1,746,820

142

19.2

29.6

BrightRoll Video Network**

1,351,741

717

10.5

41.8

ADAP.TV†

1,158,088

564

12.2

30.9

Hulu

1,055,895

405

50.7

6.8

SpotXchange Video Ad Marketplace†

911,265

466

15.1

19.7

TubeMogul Video Ad Platform**

909,620

282

12.3

24.1

Tremor Video**

783,160

391

11.9

21.4

Specific Media**

764,067

325

7.4

33.9

Auditude, Inc.**

708,822

186

13.6

17.0

Videology**

441,377

219

7.1

20.2

Note: In addition to data changes resulting from the overall methodology improvements with August 2012 Video Metrix data, (see note below) the data for Hulu experienced a decline due to the refinement of tag collection mechanisms unique to it. As a reminder, Comscore advises caution when interpreting month-over-month trends.
*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

Top 10 YouTube Partner Channels by Unique Viewers
The August 2012 YouTube partner data revealed that video music channel VEVO (47.6 million viewers) maintained the top position in the ranking, followed by Warner Music with 24.8 million. Machinima drew 21.9 million viewers, followed by Maker Studios Inc. with 20.9 million and Fullscreen with 18.9 million. Among the top 10 YouTube partners, Machinima demonstrated the highest engagement (85 minutes per viewer) followed by Maker Studios (47 minutes per viewer). VEVO streamed the greatest number of videos (569 million), followed by Machinima (529 million).

Top YouTube Partner Channels* Ranked by Unique Video Viewers
August 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

47,590

568,663

40.5

Warner Music @ Youtube

24,765

144,751

19.5

Machinima @ YouTube

21,860

528,647

85.0

Maker Studios Inc. @ YouTube

20,909

263,177

46.7

Fullscreen @ YouTube

18,946

120,567

19.0

BroadbandTV @ YouTube

11,117

69,173

17.9

Schmooru @ YouTube

9,136

24,927

9.5

Big Frame @ YouTube

8,411

54,395

22.3

Alloy @ YouTube

7,867

39,644

15.3

MOVIECLIPS @ YouTube

6,855

20,379

8.1

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

Other notable findings from August 2012 include:

  • 87.3 percent of the U.S. Internet audience viewed online video.
  • The duration of the average online content video was 6.7 minutes, while the average online video ad was 0.4 minutes.
  • Video ads accounted for 20.1 percent of all videos viewed and 1.4 percent of all minutes spent viewing video online.

A Note About August 2012 Video Metrix Reporting
With the release of August 2012 U.S. Video Metrix data, Comscore introduced three important methodological enhancements to our estimates that will affect data on a go-forward basis. The first enhancement is the incorporation of updated demographic universe estimates based on data from the 2010 U.S. census, which provides an improved accounting of the percentage of the population falling into each demographic segment. The second enhancement is an improvement in Comscore’s enumeration survey methodology to better represent persons in cell-phone only households. The third and final enhancement is a new technique to account for cookie rejection in Safari browsers, for sites measured via Comscore’s Unified Digital Measurement (UDM) methodology. Due to the effects of the changes to the August 2012 U.S. Video Metrix data, Comscore advises caution when interpreting month-over-month trends.

About Comscore
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Comscore, Inc.
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