comScore Releases August U.S. Online Video Rankings

comScore, Inc. SCOR today released data from the comScore Video Metrix service showing that 180 million U.S. Internet users watched online video content in August for an average of 18 hours per viewer. The total U.S. Internet audience engaged in a record 6.9 billion viewing sessions. The data revealed that video music channels VEVO (60.6 million viewers) and Warner Music (30.9 million viewers) assumed the top two positions. Gaming channel Machinima ranked third with 17.7 million viewers, followed by Maker Studios with 10 million, Demand Media with 8.4 million and Revision3 with 6.6 million. Within the top 10 partners, TheGameStation demonstrated the highest engagement with 76.5 minutes per viewer on average. Machinima was a close second on average engagement at 72.6 minutes per viewer, while accounting for the second most videos viewed (289 million) after VEVO. Interestingly, 68.1 percent of Machinima viewers were male and 70.3 percent were under the age of 35. Google GOOG Sites, driven primarily by video viewing at YouTube.com, ranked as the top online video content property in August with 162 million unique viewers, while VEVO ranked second with 62.3 million. Facebook.com remained at the #3 position with 51.7 million viewers, followed by Viacom VIA Digital with 49.9 million and Microsoft MSFT Sites with 46.4 million. Total viewing sessions reached another all-time high in August at 6.9 billion, with Google Sites generating the highest number of viewing sessions (3.5 billion). The average viewer watched 18 hours of online video content during the course of the month, with Google Sites (5.7 hours) and Hulu (3.2 hours) demonstrating the highest engagement. Americans viewed more than 5.6 billion video ads in August, with Hulu generating the highest number of video ad impressions at 996 million. Tremor Video ranked second overall (and highest among video ad exchanges/networks) with 764 million ad views, followed by Adap.tv (720 million) and BrightRoll Video Network (603 million). Time spent watching video ads totaled more than 2.5 billion minutes during the month, with Hulu delivering the highest duration of video ads at 426 million minutes. Video ads reached 50 percent of the total U.S. population an average of 37.6 times during the month. Hulu delivered the highest frequency of video ads to its viewers with an average of 38.1.