“The greater increase in time spent viewing compared to the number of unique viewers is likely due to an increase in the amount of video content available for viewers to watch, especially long-form content like movies and TV shows on sites like Netflix and Hulu,” said Jo Holz, SVP, Client Research Initiatives, Nielsen.

During August 2011, viewers aged 18-34 accounted for nearly 40 percent of total streaming time, with males 18-34 contributing 23 percent.  Video viewers aged 35-49 made up 26 percent of total steaming time during the month, followed by viewers over the age of 50 – the largest segment of the online video population – who spent over 9 billion minutes watching, 22 percent of total streaming time from home and work computers.

]]> http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/time-spent-streaming-outpacing-number-of-streamers/feed/ 0 http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/september-2011-top-u-s-online-destinations-for-video/ http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/september-2011-top-u-s-online-destinations-for-video/#comments Thu, 03 Nov 2011 21:29:00 +0000 alana http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/?p=29816 During September 2011, there were 164.4 million unique U.S. video viewers who streamed nearly 18 billion videos and spent almost 5 hours on average watching.

Even though fewer people in the U.S. viewed video online during the month, users spent more total time watching – four and a half hours on average during the month, an increase of 4 percent from May.

Among the top online video destinations, only The CollegeHumor Network seems to have avoided the effects of summer as the number of unique U.S. video viewers increased 23 percent from the prior month.

Dailymotion showed the strongest month-over-month growth among the top 10 destinations for video streaming, up 21 percent to 183 million videos.  VEVO also saw an increase in video streams from May (+3%), while top online video destination YouTube held steady with 8.9 billion videos streamed during June.

U.S. video viewers spent more time on average watching video on Netflix than on any other site – 8 hours, 34 minutes, which is more than twice the amount of time spent watching content on Hulu, the #2 site by time per viewer in June.

New to the top 10 destinations by time spent per viewer, CBS Sports saw the largest increase in the average amount of time U.S. viewers spent viewing video on the site, up 87 percent from May.

Note: Due to data collection issues resulting from changes in the format of Netflix stream URLs, all metrics for the Netflix brand were excluded from the April and May 2011 online video rankings. As a result, there is no month-over-month change for Netflix metrics during June 2011.

Among the top online video destinations, MSN/WindowsLive/Bing saw the largest month-over-month growth in unique viewers (+29%), followed by Fox Interactive Media (+21%), Hulu (+18%) and AOL Media Network (+14%).

Double-digit growth in unique viewers also brought double-digit gains in streams for MSN/WindowsLive/Bing, AOL Media Network and Hulu.  CBS Entertainment Websites also saw a notable increase in streaming activity during May, up 13 percent from April to 120.7 million streams.

On average, U.S. viewers spent the most time watching Hulu content during the month of May, spending 4 hours, 43 minutes viewing Hulu videos across the Web.  Hulu was followed by Ustream.tv and Justin.tv – both of which streamed replays of the April 29 Royal Wedding causing average time spent viewing video on these sites to increase by 61 percent and 55 percent, respectively.

As the traditional television season wrapped up, viewers also increased their time spent watching video content on network-related destinations ABC Family (+28%), Lifetime Digital (+12%), Cwtv.com (+12%), and MTV Networks Entertainment & Games (+7%).

Note: Due to data collection issues resulting from changes in the format of Netflix stream URLs, all metrics for the Netflix brand will be excluded from the May, 2011 online video rankings.

Traditional TV
Overall TV viewership increased 22 minutes per month per person over last year, remaining the dominant source of video content for all demographics. In addition, Nielsen data shows that consumers are willing to pay for high-quality TV content, with broadcast-only homes less than a tenth of U.S. TV households.

Mobile Video
Though still accounting for just a handful of hours per month, mobile video viewing continues to see marked gains, increasing 41 percent over last year and more than 100 percent since 2009.

Timeshifted TV
Timeshifted TV continues to grow, both in the penetration of DVR devices in the home and the time spent.

Internet Video
Internet video streaming also saw increases in time spent; this behavior is the highest among a younger and diverse subset of the population.

More details are available to download in the complete Cross-Platform Report.

Emerging Traditional TV/In-home Internet Streaming Trend
Until the fall of 2010, Nielsen data consistently indicated that the heaviest media consumers are so across all platforms. A subset of consumers from television and Internet homes has now emerged that defies that notion, with the lightest traditional television users streaming significantly more Internet video, and the heaviest streamers under-indexing for traditional TV viewership.

This behavior is led by those ages 18-34.  The group of consumers exhibiting this behavior is significant but small. More than a third of the TV/Internet population is not streaming, whereas less than 1% are not watching TV.

For more in-depth information on overall viewing behavior—by ethnicity, gender and age—as well as emerging trends and device and delivery penetration, download Cross-Platform Report.

The top 10 video sites in April are largely the same as last month, with only a slight change among the ranks. AOL Media Network and The CollegeHumor Network saw the largest month-over-month increase in unique viewers – up 13 percent and 11 percent, respectively – placing them just ahead of Hulu, which was the #6 video brand in March.

YouTube’s usage was at an all-time high in April as their U.S. viewers consumed 8.7 billion streams, up 7 percent from last month.

New to the list of most heavily used sites with double-digit gains in streams from March were Dailymotion (+61%), AOL Media Network (+31%) and Megavideo (+25%).

Three of the top 10 most engaging video brands in April saw their video viewers more than triple their average time spent viewing video on the site. Time spent viewing video on The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints was up 254 percent, due to Easter-related content. Ustream.tv and CBS Sports also saw significant growth as viewers increased their video viewing time by 246 percent and 239 percent, respectively.

Note: Due to data collection issues resulting from changes in the format of Netflix stream URLs, all metrics for the Netflix brand will be excluded in the April, 2011 and May, 2011 online video rankings.

For the second month in a row, VEVO is the #2 video brand in the U.S.  With 33.3 million unique video viewers, VEVO has 4 percent more video viewers than #3 Facebook, but trails consistent #1 YouTube by nearly 79 million unique video viewers.

All of the top 10 U.S. video brands saw an increase in unique video viewers from the previous month.  The fastest-growing among the top brands – and new to the top 10 during March – was CNN Digital Network with a 60 percent increase in unique U.S. video viewers.

CNN Digital Network was also new to the top 10 most heavily used brands in March and saw the largest month-over-month growth in streams (+128%), mostly due to U.S. video viewers streaming coverage of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.  Also showing significant gains in streams from last month were Netflix (+28%), MTV Music Networks (+25%), VEVO and Yahoo (+21%).

Netflix is once again the most engaging video brand in the U.S. as video viewers averaged nearly 10 hours on the site from home and work locations.  Justin.tv’s U.S. video viewers showed the largest month-over-month increase in time spent viewing video on the site, up 17 percent from February.

*updated April 18, 2011 to clarify and correct chart references to unique viewers, total streams and time per viewer.

The same video brands from last month are still the most popular in February, but with a slight change in ranking as VEVO moved past Facebook to take the #2 spot with 32.3 million unique video viewers.

Despite the short month, Hulu had the largest increase in audience among ten most popular brands, up 7.3 percent to 12.8 million unique viewers. Along with VEVO and Hulu, AOL Media Network and Fox Interactive Media also saw gains in unique U.S. viewers, up 6.8 percent and 6.1 percent, respectively.

CBS Entertainment Websites was new to the ten most heavily used brands in February with a 22.5% increase in total streams from last month. MTV Music Networks also showed notable month-over-month growth in streams, up 15.6 percent from January.

Among the ten most engaging video brands, Cwtv.com’s U.S. video viewers showed the largest month-over-month increase in time spent on the site from home and work locations, more than doubling their average time spent in January. The #2 site Tudou.com also saw significant growth as video viewers increased their time on the site by 25 percent, spending 8 hours, 8 minutes on average in February.

On Chinese New Years Eve, watching CCTV’s (China Central Television) New Year’s Gala on television has historically been a traditional family event. But consumption has changed, according to a new study by Nielsen, as Chinese consumers are increasingly creating their own “converged” network.

According to the latest Chinese New Year (CNY) Gala Show cross-platform study, while TV still played a major role in this special occasion, consumers used other media platforms much more than during the last Chinese New Year’s Gala show. The study shows that video website usage increased significantly compared to last year. For example, unique browsers (UB) for Youku and Tudou increased 24 percent and 28 percent, respectively from last year’s CNY period.

Many Chinese consumers are not satisfied with a singular TV experience anymore. More and more, consumers want to enrich their TV experience with additional sources of information found on the Internet and mobile devices. According to Nielsen, there was a significant shift from TV to the Internet during prime time on the CNY Eve compared to last year for those consumers who live in Shanghai – one of the most sophisticated cities in China. And 11 percent of Shanghai homes simultaneously used the Internet while watching the Gala show.

According to the Nielsen survey conducted in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen during the CNY period, 42 percent of respondents relied on online and 9 percent used mobile screens to obtain further information about the CCTV Gala Show.

Opinions Count
Chinese consumers took full advantage of the interactivity offered by the online platform using forums and microblogs as a way to connect with others and express their opinions about content and performers in the CNY shows. From an online perspective, the CCTV Gala Show generated 39,322 messages from netizens, more than any other CNY shows broadcast by other major provincial satellite TV channels. The programs, “Missing Home,” “In the Spring” and “My Desk-mate” generated the most buzz among Chinese netizens.

Challenges for Programmers and Marketers
With more viewers no longer solely focused on one screen, programmers and marketers must think strategically about content and advertising that resonate across all three screens – TV, Internet and mobile. The good news is that when programmers and advertisers have great content, they get the benefit of the echo chamber found on the Internet and mobile where people will talk about the content over and over. This is true both for the program content and the ad content.

As consumer behavior is changing very fast, the role of media must change too. The key to success is identifying the appropriate screen that is most appealing and convenient for the desired audience and know how consumers interact with it in this era of convergence. Consumers are engaging more often in real-time conversations, particularly on social networks and other digital platforms. Social media is a great way to involve consumers as their richer interactions can help marketers improve targeting.

The changing role of traditional media and the emergence of newer platforms extend the programmer and marketer’s role well beyond the delivered audience. Programmers and marketers today need a deeper understanding of how consumers engage with different types of media at each stage.

About the “The converged Chinese Audience during the Spring Festival” Study
This study integrates insights from a range of Nielsen’s services available in China, including online buzz, the cross-platform research panel in Shanghai, as well as customized research fielded in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen during the CNY period.