Online Video Viewership Rises in UK
The number of online videos viewed in the U.K. in April rose 47 percent compared to the same month in 2008, according to comScore Video Metrix.
According to the company, 4.7 billion videos were viewed in the U.K. at home and work locations during the month of April, a 47 percent surge from 3.2 billion in April 2008.
Google Sites (thanks mostly to YouTube) were the most popular destination for online videos in April, as 2.4 billion videos were viewed there, a 58 percent increase from the 1.5 billion videos viewed in the same month last year.
BBC Sites were second with 79.4 million videos viewed online in April, a 67 percent rise from 47.5 million videos viewed in April of last year.
ITV Sites were third with 34.7 million videos viewed, a 102 percent increase, followed by Megavideo.com with 31.7 million videos viewed, a 208 percent boost.
Microsoft Sites followed with 30.2 million videos viewed, a 26 percent increase, followed by Channel4 with 20.4 million videos viewed in April, a 67 percent increase.
Dailymotion.com was seventh with 20.2 million videos viewed, an 81 percent increase, followed by AOL LLC with 19.1 million videos, a 632 percent increase.
Fox Interactive Media finished ninth with 18.9 million videos viewed, while Facebook.com rounded out the top 10 list with 17.0 million videos viewed, a 23 percent increase.
“With nearly five billion videos viewed in the U.K. in April, online video is a powerful and growing vehicle for online advertising placement,” said Mike Read, senior vice president and managing director of comScore Europe.
“The online video market currently relies heavily on display ads for monetization, and in the coming months and years we can expect that video ads will play an even more prominent role,” he added. “Despite the market’s overwhelming size and audience at this phase of the growth curve, it is also clear that we’re still in the early stages of advertising optimization and effectiveness in this increasingly important entertainment channel.”
comScore also noted that 35.4 million of the 36.8 million U.K. Internet users in April (or 96 percent of them) saw some form of display advertising, which includes static banners, rich media and video ads.
YouTube.com saw the most display ad views in the multimedia site category in April with 621 million ad views for its 18.5 million unique visitors, followed by Metacafe with 11 million ad views for its 1.6 million unique visitors.
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