comScore released its December 2008 data from the comScore Video Metrix service showing that U.S. Internet users viewed a record 14.3 billion online videos during the month, representing an increase of 13 percent versus the previous month. YouTube led the growth charge, accounting for 49 percent of the incremental gain in videos viewed versus November.

Google Sites Adds to Lead in Video Market Share

In December, Google Sites once again ranked as the top U.S. video property with 5.9 billion videos viewed (41 percent online video market share), with YouTube.com accounting for more than 99 percent of all videos viewed at the property. Fox Interactive Media ranked second with 445 million videos (3.1 percent), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 330 million (2.3 percent) and Viacom Digital with 291 million (2.0 percent). Hulu continued its growth trajectory, climbing 6 percent versus November to 241 million videos viewed.

    Top U.S. Online Video Properties* by Videos Viewed
    December 2008
    Total U.S. - Home/Work/University Locations
    Source: comScore Video Metrix

    Property                       Videos            Share (%) of
                                    (000)               Videos

    Total Internet               14,318,722             100.0
    Google Sites                  5,905,854              41.2
    Fox Interactive Media           444,865               3.1
    Yahoo! Sites                    330,025               2.3
    Viacom Digital                  290,558               2.0
    Microsoft Sites                 247,903               1.7
    Hulu.com                        240,585               1.7
    AOL LLC                         197,135               1.4
    Turner Network                  183,948               1.3
    Disney Online                   148,434               1.0
    ESPN                            102,542               0.7

    * Rankings based on video content sites; excludes video server networks.
      Online video includes both streaming and progressive download video.

Google Sites Surpasses 100 Million Viewers in December

Nearly 150 million U.S. Internet users watched an average of 96 videos per viewer in December. Google Sites surpassed 100 million online video viewers during the month, representing two out of every three Internet users who watched video. Fox Interactive ranked second with 56.9 million viewers, followed by Yahoo! Sites (42.8 million) and AOL LLC (31.5 million).

    Top U.S. Online Video Properties* by Unique Viewers
    December 2008
    Total U.S. - Home/Work/University Locations
    Source: comScore Video Metrix

    Property                    Unique Viewers     Average Videos
                                     (000)            per Viewer

    Total Internet                  149,587              95.7
    Google Sites                    100,092              59.0
    Fox Interactive Media            56,895               7.8
    Yahoo! Sites                     42,761               7.7
    AOL LLC                          31,522               6.3
    Microsoft Sites                  29,534               8.4
    Viacom Digital                   27,370              10.6
    Hulu.com                         24,572               9.8
    Turner Network                   20,499               9.0
    Time Warner - Excl. AOL          17,294               2.8
    CBS Corporation                  14,840               3.7

    * Rankings based on video content sites; excludes video server networks.
      Online video includes both streaming and progressive download video.

Other notable findings from December 2008 include:

• 78.5 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience viewed online video.
• The average online video viewer watched 309 minutes of video, or more than 5 hours.
• 98.9 million viewers watched 5.9 billion videos on YouTube.com (59.2 videos per viewer).
• 48.7 million viewers watched 367 million videos on MySpace.com (7.6 videos per viewer).
• The duration of the average online video was 3.2 minutes.
• The duration of the average online video viewed at Hulu was 10.1 minutes, higher than any other video property in the top ten.