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September 2012: Top U.S. Online Video Sites and Sports Brands

2 minute read | November 2012

In September 2012, 162 million Americans watched online video. They spent almost seven hours of the month viewing content, streaming nearly 26 billion videos.  YouTube was the top online video destination, with more than three-quarters of total viewers streaming videos through their site during the month.

In terms of time spent viewing online video, Netflix continues to top the list with viewers spending more than 11 hours each during September, followed by Hulu and YouTube averaging more than four hours per person on each site.

Overall Online Video Usage (U.S.)

September 2012
Unique Viewers 162,407,000
Total Streams 25,844,903,000
Streams per Viewer 159
Time per Viewer (hh:mm) 6:48
Source: Nielsen

Top Online Video Sites by Unique Viewers

Video Brand Unique Viewers
YouTube 136,124,000
Yahoo! 37,898,000
VEVO 37,855,000
AOL Media Network 24,889,000
Facebook 22,622,000
The CollegeHumor Network 19,671,000
MSN/WindowsLive/Bing 18,783,000
ESPN Digital Network 15,233,000
Perform Group 12,841,000
Hulu 12,173,000
Read as: During September 2012, 136 million unique U.S. viewers watched YouTube video content.Source: Nielsen

Top Online Video Destinations by Total Streams

Video Brand Total Streams
YouTube 16,193,073,000
Hulu 694,794,000
VEVO 635,890,000
AOL Media Network 597,185,000
Netflix 382,078,000
Dailymotion 332,745,000
Yahoo! 232,775,000
ESPN Digital Network 295,480,000
SuperPass 199,883,000
MSN/WindowsLive/Bing 195,789,000
Read as: During September 2012, over 16 billion videos were streamed on YouTube.Source: Nielsen


Top Online Video Sites by Time per Viewer / 1M Unique Viewer Minimum

Video Brand Time per Viewer (hh:mm)
Netflix 11:02
Hulu 4:19
YouTube 4:02
GorillaVid 3:52
Ustream.tv 2:06
Crackle 1:52
Justin.TV 1:34
Livestream 1:19
Clear Channel Online Network 1:04
Blip.tv 0:55
Read as: During September 2012, Netflix video viewers in the U.S. spent an average of 11 hours, 2 minutes watching video content on Netflix.Source: Nielsen

Heading into the start of the NFL season, which is also the tail end of MLB’s season, destinations for Sports content saw significant growth during September, with ESPN Digital Network adding nearly 3 million unique viewers compared to the month before and Perform Group (which includes MLB.tv and NBA.com) also having a strong showing.

Top Sports Video Brands by Unique Viewers

Video Brand Unique Viewers
ESPN Digital Network 15,233,000
Yahoo! Sports Websites 7,573,000
NFL Internet Websites 7,087,000
MLB.com 6,098,000
CollectiveDigitalStudio on YouTube 4,349,000
FoxSports.com on MSN (Network) 2,586,000
WWE on YouTube 2,526,000
CBS Sports 2,398,000
Sports Illustrated Sites 1,182,000
JumpTV Sports 951,000
Read as: During September 2012, 15.2 million unique U.S. viewers streamed ESPN Digital Network video content.Source: Nielsen

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