Online Networks

Americans who watched video ads in May seemed to have watched a whole lot of them, according to the latest Video Metrix figures from comScore. The data reveals that about 53% of the US population watched online video ads in May, relatively unchanged from April's 52.6%. But in May, those Americans watched an average of 96.5 ads each, up significantly from 81.6 the prior month. Back in January, the US population reached by online video ads viewed them slightly more than 58 times during the month. Read more »

There's a reason Netflix accounts for almost one-third of North American peak downstream internet traffic. According to new data released by the NPD Group, TV programming accounts for 80% of subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) streams, and Netflix Watch Instantly dominates that market to the tune of 89% market share in Q1. There are signs that the TV programming market may slowly be fragmenting, though: Netflix's share was down 4% points year-over-year, with that decline coming mostly at the hands of Hulu Plus, which increased its share from 7% to 10%. Read more »

A survey from M-GO of streaming media consumers finds that new TV shows (that are still on the air) are their most popular type of programming, cited by 68% of respondents, with new movies (46%) and older movies (44%) in tow. That suggests that streamers are driven by a desire to watch shows on their own schedule, perhaps more so than by a particular affinity for content that can only be found online. Indeed, recent research from the IAB indicates that among online video viewers, convenience counts more as a reason to watch than content availability. Read more »

Most consumers are keeping it short and sweet when it comes to their online video viewing habits, but that may be limiting the industry's ability to monetize its inventory, according to [download page] FreeWheel's Q1 Video Monetization Report. During the first quarter, 86.7% of video views on "Linear + Digital" networks were less than 5 minutes in length, as were 86.2% of video views on "Digital Pure-Play" networks. But ad loads (ads per video viewed) for short-form content averaged out at just 0.9 for the Linear + Digital model and 0.5 for the Digital Pure-Play model. Read more »

Online video ads bested their March record of 13.2 billion views by about 70 million or so views in April, according to the latest Video Metrix data from comScore. The increase wasn't related to frequency of ads served to the average viewer, which remained relatively steady at roughly 82. Instead, video ads reached at greater percentage of the US population, up about a point to 53%. During the month, video ads accounted for 25.5% of all online videos viewed, and 2.3% of all minutes spent viewing online video, both up slightly from March. Read more »

The volume of smartphone impressions on the Millennial Media platform is increasing, but not as quickly as impressions from non-phone connected devices, represented primarily by tablets, according to [download page] Millennial Media's latest Mobile Mix report. In Q1, the company reports that non-phone connected devices accounted for 25% of total platform impressions, up from 20% a year earlier. That 5% point gain came entirely at the expense of smartphones, which dropped from 75% to 70% share of impressions. Feature phones, somewhat surprisingly, kept steady at 5%. Read more »

Online video ad views jumped to a record high of 13.2 billion in March, up about 33% month-over-month, details comScore in its latest Video Metrix data release. To put that 13.2 billion figure in context, it means that video ads accounted for one-quarter of all videos viewed. Video ad reach extended to 52% of all Americans an average of 82 times during the month. In February, video ads had a similar reach, though frequency was almost 25% less (63 times on average). Read more »

Although they watch less TV during the day, wealthy households (income of more than $100k per year) still make up more than one-fifth share of primetime viewing, virtually unchanged from last year (20.6%) and the year before (22.2%). The data is part of Nielsen's "Advertising & Audiences" report [download page], which analyzes the distribution of primetime TV viewing by income and education level, also finding that primetime viewing among homes headed by a college graduate remains steady at about one-quarter share. Read more »

Total spending for real-time bidding (RTB) on video ads is estimated to grow by a compound annual rate of 57% between 2011 and 2014, per a new study [download page] commissioned by SpotXchange and conducted by Forrester Consulting. That would outpace the 20% compound annual growth rate for total spending on video advertising, meaning that RTB would account for 24.7% of total spending next year, up from just 8.7% last year. Read more »

Online video has been the subject of a fair amount of research of late (see here and here for examples), and is certainly worthy of the attention. But, Edison Research and Arbitron would like to remind everyone that there's something else out there called online radio, and among users, it's far ahead of online video in terms of weekly consumption. According to the researchers' study [download page], self-reported time spent per week is about 3 times higher for weekly online radio listeners (11 hours and 56 minutes) than for weekly online video viewers (4 hours). And the gap's only getting bigger. Read more »