comScore released its January 2009 data from the comScore Video Metrix service, indicating that the total U.K. online video viewing audience has grown 10 percent during the past year to 29.6 million unique viewers age 15 and older.

Google is U.K.'s Most Popular Online Video Property

Google Sites once again ranked as the top online video property in the U.K. with 23.7 million viewers (up 14 percent versus year ago), driven by the popularity of YouTube.com, which accounted for 99 percent of all videos viewed on the property. BBC Sites ranked second with 6.8 million viewers, followed by Microsoft Sites (4.3 million viewers), Facebook.com (3.6 million viewers), and Yahoo! Sites (3 million viewers).

    Top U.K. Online Video Properties Ranked by Total Unique Viewers (000)*
    January 2009 vs. January 2008
    Total U.K. - Age 15+, Home & Work Locations**
    Source: comScore Video Metrix

    Property                           Jan-2008    Jan-2009     % Change

    Total Internet : Total Audience      26,806      29,574          10%
    Google Sites                         20,679      23,664          14%
    YouTube.com                          20,042      23,523          17%
    BBC Sites                             5,746       6,771          18%
    Microsoft Sites                       4,963       4,344         -12%
    Facebook.com                          1,489       3,582         140%
    Yahoo! Sites                          3,402       2,998         -12%
    Amazon Sites                          1,620       2,945          82%
    Fox Interactive Media                 3,829       2,587         -32%
    AOL LLC                                 N/A       2,198         N/A
    Megavideo.com                           800       2,189         174%
    Metacafe                              1,835       1,940           6%

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

**Excludes Internet activity from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

BBC Has Strong Lead in Online Video Viewing among Big 5 Broadcasters

A total of 4 billion videos were viewed online in the U.K. in January 2009, of which 99.5 million (2.5 percent) were watched on the Web sites of the top 5 television broadcasters: the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, and Sky. The majority of these videos were viewed on BBC Sites, which captured a 54.7 percent market share among the Big 5, followed by Channel 4 (23.8 percent share), ITV Sites (13.6 percent share), Sky Sites (6.8 percent share) and Five.tv (1.1 percent share).

    
    Top 5 U.K. Television Broadcasters Ranked by Videos Viewed Online*
    January 2009
    Total U.K. - Age 15+, Home & Work Locations**
    Source: comScore Video Metrix

                                                      Share of Videos
                                                      Viewed on Big 5
    Property                       Videos (000)      Broadcaster Sites

    Big 5 Broadcasters                99,548             100.0%
    BBC Sites                         54,455              54.7%
    Channel 4                         23,724              23.8%
    ITV Sites                         13,527              13.6%
    Sky Sites                          6,764               6.8%
    Five.tv                            1,078               1.1%

*Rankings based on total videos viewed on sites of top 5 traditional U.K. Television broadcasters.

**Excludes Internet activity from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

Other notable findings from January 2009 include:

• 80.1 percent of the total U.K. Internet audience viewed online video.
• The total U.K. online video viewing audience watched a combined 280 million hours of video content.
• 23.5 million viewers watched over 2 billion videos on YouTube.com (86 videos per viewer).
• 1.1 million U.K. mobile phone subscribers visited YouTube.com.
• 4.8 million U.K. mobile phone subscribers used their phone to watch any kind of TV or video.