Hulu Continues Losing YOY Viewers

Online video site Hulu had about 27.5 million unique US viewers in March 2011, according to new comScore Video Metrix data. While this was on par with 27.26 million unique viewers in February 2010, it represented a steep 31% drop from about 40 million unique viewers in March 2010.
Hulu also lost about 30% of its unique viewer total in February 2011 compared to February 2010.

Google Strengthens Lead

In contrast Google sites, which includes the undisputed leading online video platform YouTube, increased its dominance of the US online video space in March 2011. Google recorded about 143.2 million unique viewers, 1.97 billion viewing sessions and 275.6 average minutes per viewer. These totals were all significantly ahead of any competitor, with the closest competition coming from Hulu in average monthly minutes (215).
Compared to February 2011, Google increased unique visitors by about 1% from roughly 141 million, increased viewing sessions by almost 9% from roughly 1.83 billion, and increased average minutes per viewer by 5% from 261.6.
The only one of those metrics comScore tracked in March 2010 was unique visitors. Google grew its unique visitor total by about 5% year-over-year from 136 million.

Fewer Monthly Unique Viewers Watch More Videos

Video Metrix data shows that 174 million US internet users watched online video content in March 2011 for an average of 14.8 hours (888 minutes) per viewer. The total US internet audience engaged in more than 5.7 billion viewing sessions during the course of the month.
Unique viewers were up 2.5% from 169.65 million in February 2011 and down about 3% from 180.2 million in March 2010. Viewing sessions were up 15% from about 5 billion the prior month, and average time per user was up about 9% from 816.4 minutes.

Tremor Media Reaches More than Half of Audience

In March 2011, Tremor Media ranked as the top video ad network with a potential reach of 96.5 million viewers, or 53.5% of the total video viewing audience. Adconion Video Network ranked second with a potential reach of 81.6 million viewers (45.2% penetration), followed by Advertising.com Video Network with 80.8 million viewers (44.8%).

Other Findings

• 84.8% of the total US internet audience viewed online video.
• 135.3 million viewers watched 12.9 billion videos on YouTube.com (95.6 videos per viewer).
• The average Hulu viewer watched 26.7 videos, totaling 2.6 hours of video per viewer.
• The duration of the average online video was 4.3 minutes.

What Has Video Done For Us Lately?

by Adam Singolda , Monday, April 11, 2011

Andy Plesser was kind enough to invite me to speak last week at Beet.TV conference on a panel with Kevin Krim, Global Head at Bloomberg (disclosure: one of our customers) and Bismarck Lepe, Ooyala founder and president of products. We were fortunate to open the event on a day when the panels following discussed topics such as video strategies, things publishers do, what works, what's not and -- is Hulu a mega-web failure or not? (A question more or less answered below.)  

I thought I'd share some of the notes that were discussed by some key media leaders:

1.     "Content is king."Dermot McCormack from MTV was great, passionately articulating the importance of good content: "We keep reminding ourselves at MTV that, yes, we can try to deal with technologies, and discuss various solutions as much as we want to -- but at the end of the day, it's all about whether you produced a 'Jersey Shore' with Snooki or not. MTV did. Period, the end  -- and content is indeed the king.

2.     Personalized videos can triple your video views and revenue. Kevin Krim and I were discussing the impact of replacing contextual related videos that reside on story pages, topic pages, video pages and the homepage -- with personalized related videos. The uplift it can create in viewership and revenue is ~3x.

3.    We need  single advertisers to invest $100M in online video. Bill Lederer, CEO at Kantar of WPP, said the industry needs serious advertisers. In a later conversation with me,  Bill  said that the need is not for a "package" where it's a TV + online deal, but rather a direct deal to the Web. Bill also estimated that the largest video advertiser spends $30 million annually.

4.     Don't ignore your mobile viewers. Bismarck Lepe  said that as publishers launch Ooyala they see new audiences coming from mobile/portable devices -- from 5% of the total to start, growing to 20%.

5.     Blend expensive production with cheap ones -- otherwise you will not cover the cost. Ran Harnevo from 5min was provoking the panel, asking if Hulu is really a good business or not. He compared the amount of money poured into producing the content Hulu offers versus their revenue. This equation is obviously skewed towards the cost.

6.     Monetizing distributed traffic is not an easy task, but we're getting there. Andy Plesser was discussing with Ed Halsam, head of marketing at YuMe, the challenges advertisers face when buying video traffic that is not on the "MSNBC of the worlds" but rather on blogs, etc. Ed made a comment that if the distributed traffic is unsafe it's hard to monetize it, but there are some good technologies that are advancing a "brand safety" environment so advertisers can capitalize on that traffic.

7.     Good content sells. Mark Marvel from MSNBC.com mentioned that his company is seeing 200 million monthly video views and they are fully sold - because the content and the environment is something advertisers seek. Mark then asked the audience who would pay to read NYTimes online, and most of us raised our hands. The point was clear: good content sells.
Video is gaining increasing momentum in the industry. I see more people coming to conferences and panels than I used to see, and it's the topic of discussion for media leaders.

Those who have videos are seeking ways to get more viewership, and those who don't have videos are trying to get them through syndication and distribution.

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Salesforce.com: Chatter Overview Demo Video

Forrester: Social Media, Web Spend Up, TV Down

A new Forrester Research/Association of National Advertisers survey says TV marketers plan to spend 41% of their media budgets on television in 2010 -- the same level as a year ago.

Still, this was down from the 58% level of two years ago. The survey says this illustrates a continued lack of confidence in the effectiveness of television ads.

The survey looked at 104 U.S. advertisers in 21 industries representing nearly $14 billion in measured media budgets. It included companies such as Cisco Systems, GlaxoSmithKline, ING, Kraft, Marriott, State Farm and Clorox.

Some 62% percent of companies say TV ads have become less effective in the past two years due to increased advertising clutter. Worse still, virtually all advertisers believe the TV industry needs new audience metrics beyond reach and frequency; 82% of respondents would be interested in ratings for individual commercials.

But one sign that has turned around for TV marketers: The expectant lifespan of the 30-second commercial. Now, 19% say the 30-second spot will be dead in 10 years. This is down from 28% a year ago.

The future of addressable advertising is showing some mixed signals. While 78% are interested in targeting consumers more precisely, only 59% would be willing to pay a premium for it.

Future branded entertainment deals will grow, according to 80% of advertisers. And in 2010, 38% say they will spend more on branded entertainment as an alternative to the 30-second commercial.

Social media, Web advertising and search are stealing budgets from TV and other media. Of those surveyed, 77% said they would be moving TV dollars to social media this year; 73% plan to shift money to online advertising, and 59% will be spending more on search-engine marketing and 46% on e-mail marketing.

Other non-TV traditional media doesn't seem to be part of this trend. Only 15% said they plan to increase spending in traditional media such as radio, outdoor, magazines or newspapers.

"CMOs need to prepare for television's digital future by forcing change upon the TV advertising ecosystem," said David Cooperstein, vice president and research director of Forrester Research.

"We recommend that advertisers get ready for the future of television by preparing to deliver targeted commercials, delivering true branded entertainment experiences and embracing the connected TV."

The survey findings will be presented at the ANA's "TV and Everything Video Forum" on Feb. 11 in New York.

Snow Storm Update: Video

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