Online video viewing in the UK is rapidly increasing according to new figures. New research by comScore has shown that 5.5 billion videos were viewed online in February 2010 which is a rise of 37 percent on the previous year.
The data looked at online video viewings on video content sites excluding video server networks and has shown a significant increase in viewings over the past year across them all.
Not surprisingly of all the video sites it appears that sites owned by Google are the most popular choice with YouTube in particular accounting for a massive 99.6 percent of all videos viewed via a Google product. This means Google can boast a 17 percent growth in video content viewed on their sites in the UK. Further from this a whopping 2.5 billion videos were viewed in February 2010 via Google’s viewing sites meaning Google take first place as the UKs leading online viewing property.
BBC came in as the UKs second with 140 million videos viewed and Facebook has been ranked as the fastest growing video property with a rise of 205 percent over the year.
“The U.K. online video market continues to soar and is attracting a greater and greater share of Internet users’ attention,” said Mike Read, SVP and Managing Director, comScore Europe. “In particular, we’ve seen eyeballs move towards the online channel to watch more long-form, professional video content, such as popular broadcast network TV shows. This trend presents a significant opportunity to advertisers, as comScore research has consistently shown that online video advertising is effective at building brands.”
The research also analysed the online video viewing audience and found that viewing trends at the sites of the U.K.’s leading TV stations differ by age and gender. The data showed BBC’s video viewing audience to be male between the ages of 25 and 54 whereas Channel 4 slants heavily toward the 15-24. ITV Sites was shown to have the least appeal to males with more women making up the numbers.
Interestingly the study also found that 16-24 years olds were the highest consumers of video content but it’s not just Google that capture their attention as they tend to favour content from Channel 4 and ITV.
