The average online American spent nearly 189 minutes viewing internet video in May 2009, a 49% year-over-year increase vs. May 2008, according to (pdf) monthly video data from the Nielsen Online Video Census. As in past months, most of this viewing took place on YouTube.
The data reveal that unique viewers, total streams, streams-per-viewer and time-per-viewer are all up for the year, with time-per-viewer showing the largest increase.
Though streams-per-viewer and time-per-viewer are up (19.6% and 48.9% respectively) for the year, they are down vs. April 2009.
Top Online Video Brands
Google’s YouTube continues to hold the undisputed #1 position in terms of video streams in May 2009, with more than six billion videos viewed. Hulu, which is being fueled by middle-aged viewers, remains on a growth trajectory and is holding steady at #2. Yahoo, Fox Interactive and ABC.com round out the top five:
About the data: Nielsen Online’s VideoCensus combines patented panel and census research methodologies to provide an count of viewing activity and engagement and in-depth demographic reporting. Online video viewing is tracked according to video player, which can be used on site or embedded elsewhere on the Web. Nielsen defines a unique viewer as anyone who viewed a full episode, part of an episode or a program clip during the month. A stream is a program segment. VideoCensus measurement does not include video advertising.