Sept. News, Entertainment Events Boost Online Video

Fall TV premieres, coupled with coverage of the presidential election and the financial crisis, boosted online video viewing at all four networks’ websites in September.

NBC.com, which grew 312% month-over-month, saw the largest September increase in video viewers, followed by FOX Broadcasting and ABC.com, with 165% and 105% growth, respectively, Nielsen Online reported Thursday.

Rank (by UV)	TV Network Web Property	Unique Viewers (in 000s)	% Change: Unique Viewers (Aug. – Sept. 2008)
1	NBC.com	5,557	312%
2	ABC.COM	5,246	105%
3	CBS Television	3,296	38%
4	FOX Broadcasting	1,371	165%
Source: Nielsen Online, VideoCensus (August – September 2008).
Note: Data includes progressive downloads and excludes video advertising.

“A combination of series and season premiers, political news and parodies, and coverage of the financial crisis all contributed to increased online video viewing for the television networks in September,” Jon Gibs, vice president, media analytics, Nielsen Online, noted. “Consumers are increasingly relying on the Web to catch up on content they missed when it aired on television and the networks are beginning to capitalize on this trend.”

Total video streams in a variety of entertainment categories also increased last month.

Fastest Growing Entertainment Categories Online: Sept. 2008	Aug. 2008: Total Video Streams	Sept. 2008: Total Video Streams	% Change: Unique Viewers (Aug. – Sept. 2008)
Entertainment – Online Games	30,267	50,814	68%
Entertainment – Events	3,132	5,094	63%
Entertainment – Books	1,179	1,902	61%
Entertainment – Music	107,461	161,369	50%
Entertainment – Broadcast Media	180,171	269,798	50%
Source: Nielsen Online, Custom Analysis (August – September 2008).

Overall, the number of unique viewers streaming video online increased 6% — from 117,916 viewers in August to 125,061 in September.  Meanwhile, total video streams increased 10% month-over-month — from 8.06 million in August to 8.89 million in September.

YouTube, Yahoo! and Fox Interactive Media were the top brands, ranked by video streams, during September.

Rank (by video streams)	Online Brand	Total Video Streams (in 000s)	Unique Video Viewers (in 000s)
1	YouTube	5,354,392	81,881
2	Yahoo!	264,266	29,908
3	Fox Interactive Media	242,444	19,258
4	MSN/Windows Live	164,776	10,980
5	Nickelodeon Kids and Family Network	162,971	6,152
6	Hulu	142,261	6,324
7	ESPN	127,794	8,434
8	CNN Digital Network	117,708	9,451
9	MTV Networks Music	97,207	4,762
10	Disney Online	87,193	9,146
Source: Nielsen Online, VideoCensus (September 2008).
Note: Data includes progressive downloads and excludes video advertising.

View the full press release.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in TV Week, Media Post, and Biz Report.com.