14 DAY TRIAL // The online video market saw quite a shakeup in June, spurred by major events like Michael Jackson's death and the Iranian protests. Along with the new standings the market also saw an all-time record with 157 million users in the US having watched a video online in the same month. Google sites still reign supreme but the rest of the top has shifted significantly with Fox Media Interactive sites, mainly MySpace, going from the second spot all the way to fifth, according to new data from comScore.
“The surge in video viewing is primarily attributable to important news stories circulating in June, including Michael Jackson’s death and the Iranian elections, which generated sizeable gains particularly at major media properties such as Viacom Digital (includes MTV), Microsoft Sites (includes MSNBC) and Turner Network (includes CNN),” the comScore report reads.
Google sites streamed 7.6 billion videos in June, 99 percent of which were on YouTube, followed by Viacom Digital properties. While they may be in second place, Viacom sites got 10 times less views, having managed to stream only 774 million videos that month. Microsoft sites followed closely with 696 million videos viewed.
Surprisingly, video search engine Blinkx jumped from sixth place in the previous month to the fourth in June, with 623 million views, more that double compared to May. Tuner, which owns CNN, also doubled the number of videos streamed, getting to 496 million. Hulu dropped from third place to seventh, most likely due to the fact that most TV shows end in May.
When it comes to viewers, YouTube still enjoys a comfortable lead but not on the scale of the one it maintains in the total number of views. Google video sites registered 112 million unique visitors, out of a total of 157 million who watched a video online in June, followed by Microsoft sites with 72 million unique visitors. Fox Media Interactive sites did better in this metric, with 59 million visitors.