Nielsen Online finds that all four television networks enjoyed month-over-month growth in online video viewers in September, coinciding with the season premieres of many popular and new television shows. NBC.com had the largest increase in video viewers, growing 312 percent month-over-month, followed by FOX Broadcasting and ABC.com, with 165 percent and 105 percent growth, respectively.
Table 1: Online Video Metrics for Television Network Web Properties,
September 2008
Unique Viewers Unique Viewer Percent Change
Name (000) from August
---- -------------- ----------------------------
NBC.com 5,557 312
ABC.COM 5,246 105
CBS Television 3,296 38
FOX Broadcasting 1,371 165
Source: Nielsen Online, VideoCensus
Note: Includes progressive downloads and excludes video advertising.
Table 2: Time Spent per Viewer at Network Web Properties, September 2008
Name Minutes Spent per Viewer
---- ------------------------
FOX Broadcasting 114.3
CBS Television 48.4
ABC.COM 45.5
NBC.com 34.6
Source: Nielsen Online, VideoCensus
Note: Includes progressive downloads and excludes video advertising.
Comic Relief Online?
The television network Web properties were not the only ones to see significant growth in online video viewing in September. The glum economic situation may be driving Web visitors online for comic relief -- total video streams increased in a variety of entertainment categories last month.
Table 3: September's Top 5 Fastest Growing Entertainment Categories - Total
Streams (000)
Name Aug-08 Sep-08 Percent Change
---- ------ ------ --------------
Entertainment - Online Games 30,267 50,814 68
Entertainment - Events 3,132 5,094 63
Entertainment - Books 1,179 1,902 61
Entertainment - Music 107,461 161,369 50
Entertainment - Broadcast Media 180,171 269,798 50
Source: Nielsen Online
Nielsen Online today also provided overall online video usage and top brands
ranked by video streams for September 2008. The overall number of unique viewers
increased 6 percent month-over-month, while total streams increased ten percent.
Table 4: Overall Online Video Usage (U.S.)
Aug-08 Sep-08 Percent Change
------ ------ --------------
Unique Viewers (000) 117,916 125,061 6
Total Streams (000) 8,061,706 8,885,068 10
Streams per Viewer 68.4 71.1 4
Time per Viewer (min) 183.9 197.2 7
Source: Nielsen Online, VideoCensus
Note: Includes progressive downloads and excludes video advertising.
Table 5: Top Online Brands ranked by Video Streams
Brand Total Streams (000) Unique Viewers (000)
----- ------------------- --------------------
YouTube 5,354,392 81,881
Yahoo! 264,266 29,908
Fox Interactive Media 242,444 19,258
MSN/Windows Live 164,776 10,980
Nickelodeon Kids and
Family Network 162,971 6,152
Hulu 142,261 6,324
ESPN 127,794 8,434
CNN Digital Network 117,708 9,451
MTV Networks Music 97,207 4,762
Disney Online 87,193 9,146
Source: Nielsen Online, VideoCensus
Note: Includes progressive downloads and excludes video advertising.