181 Million Americans Watched 40 Billion Online Videos in January

Greg Jarboe | Article Courtesy of: Search Engine Watch

The comScore Video Metrix service reported this week that 181 million U.S. Internet users watched nearly 40 billion videos of online video content in January 2012. The average viewer watched 22.6 hours of online video content that month.

The top five online video content properties in January were:

1. Google sites, driven primarily by video viewing at YouTube, with 152 million unique viewers.
2. VEVO (which is powered by YouTube) with 51.5 million.
3. Yahoo sites with 49.2 million.
4. Viacom Digital with 48.1 million.
5. Facebook with 45.1 million.

During the month, nearly 40 billion videos were viewed, with Google sites generating the highest number at 18.6 billion, followed by Hulu with 877 million, and VEVO with 717 million.

The comScore Video Metrix data for YouTube partners in January 2012 revealed that video music channels VEVO (50.6 million viewers) and Warner Music (29.7 million viewers) maintained the top two positions. Gaming channel Machinima continued to rank third with 23.8 million viewers, followed by Maker Studios Inc. with 12.5 million, FullScreen with 11.6 million and Big Frame with 8.2 million.

Among the top 10 YouTube partners, VEVO demonstrated the highest engagement (62 minutes per viewer) and highest number of videos viewed (696 million), while Machinima exhibited the second highest engagement (60 minutes per viewer) and number of videos viewed (347 million).

A Closer Look at Machinima

Last month, we took a closer look at VEVO. So, this month, let’s take a closer look at Machinima.

The word “machinima” is a loose hybrid of the words “machine” and “cinema” and is used to describe the process of creating real-time animation by manipulating a videogame’s engine and assets.

The company Machinima is a “next generation” video entertainment network for video gamers, providing a broad range of gaming-focused editorial and community programming for the hard-to-reach 18-34 year old male demographic. Worldwide, over 149 million unique gamers viewed in excess of 1.3 billion videos on Machinima January 2012, making it the top Entertainment Channel on YouTube. In addition to YouTube, Machinima properties are also found on other global distribution platforms including Facebook, Twitter, iOS and Android.

In addition to producing expansive editorial content, the company’s suite of applications, tools, and technologies motivates players to be highly engaged and active with their favorite games. Machinima builds enthusiastic communities around and in between game launches and DLC releases, distributing “official” videos and producing custom content.

Machinima’s channel on YouTube has more than 3 billion views and almost 4.2 million subscribers. The most popular video on the channel is “Avatar Trailer The Movie (New Extended HD Trailer) .”

But wait, there’s more!

Machinima has also launched other YouTube channels, including:

• Machinima Respawn, which has 767 million views and almost 1.8 million subscribers.
• Machinima Realm, which has almost 83 million views and close to 492,000 subscribers.
• Machinima Sports, which has almost 56 million views and over 344,000 subscribers.
• Machinima Trailer Vault, which has more than 35 million views, and close to 250,000 subscribers.

What Does This Mean to Marketers?

If your target audience is the 18-24 year old male demographic, you now know one of the places to reach them.

According to Nielsen @Plan Q3’11, 67 percent of all men 18-24, or 6.2 million out of 9.2 million online users in this demographic, are on YouTube.

Men aged 18 to 24 who are heavy users of vehicle navigation systems and they provide frequent advice on electronics. In addition,

• 67 percent attended a movie in the last 30 days.
• 56 percent rented a movie in the last 30 days.
• 42 percent provide frequent advice on music.
• 32 percent attended a movie during its opening weekend in the last 30 days.
• 32 percent listened to a saved digital file on their computer in the last 30 days.
• 31 percent watched a saved video file on their computer in the last 30 days.

This means that YouTube reaches 4.4 times more men 18-24 than ESPN.

As the father of two sons in the 18-34 year old male demographic, I can verify most of these findings.

And it’s worth noting that neither one of my sons owns a TV.