Online video consumption almost doubles

Research from Nielsen Online, a service of The Nielsen Company, has revealed the increasing degree to which Britons are using the internet for TV, video and movie content.

Almost 21 million Britons visited a TV, video or movie-related website in Sept 2007 - a 28 per cent increase in visitors since September 2006.

The TV/video/movie sector online is now visited by 63 per cent of Britons online; up from 55 per cent in September 2006 - a growth rate of 15 per cent.

The total time Britons spend consuming content from TV/video/movie sites has almost doubled - increasing 91 per cent from 641 million minutes in September 2006 to 1.2 billion minutes in September 2007.

Alex Burmaster, Internet Analyst, Nielsen Online, commented: "Britons are displaying an increasingly significant appetite for supplementing their viewing habits online, whether it's additional content relating to a particular TV programme or actually watching episodes or videos through their computer, we are starting to see a significant spread of entertainment consumption from the so-called 'lean-back' method of TV to the 'lean-forward' method of the PC".

YouTube is the most popular and most engaging TV, video or movie site being visited by 9.4 million Britons, who spend a combined total of almost half a billion minutes on the site.

The top ten contains four major broadcasters, two social media video sites, two movie information sites and two sites for general TV content.

1 YouTube 9.4 million viewers, 28 per cent reach, 499 million total minutes.

2 BBC (TV/movie sites only) 6.7 million viewers, 20 per cent reach, 62 million total minutes.

3 Lycos Europe Movie 3.0 million viewers, 9 per cent reach, 37 million total minutes.

4 Sky (TV/movie sites only) 3.0 million viewers, 9 per cent reach, 41 million total minutes.

5 ITV 2.1 million viewers, 6 per cent reach, 29 million total minutes.

6 Channel 4 2.1 million viewers, 6 per cent reach, 12 7 million total minutes.

Google Video 1.8 million viewers, 5 per cent reach, 14 million total minutes.

8 Odeon 0.9 million viewers, 3 per cent reach, 5 million total minutes.

9 TV-links.co.uk 0.8 million viewers, 2 per cent reach, 71 million total minutes.

10 TV.com 0.8 million viewers, 2 per cent reach, 10 million total minutes.

Source: Nielsen Online, UK NetView, home and work data, including applications, September 2007.

"The fact that YouTube is the most popular site in this sector shows the power of social media as an entertainment form - and the threat or opportunity it poses for traditional media players, depending on your point view",said Burmaster.

"It's also interesting to note that TV-links.co.uk - the ninth most popular site and, among the top ten, second only to YouTube in terms of total audience time - has now been closed after claims it was illegally providing links to download film content and TV shows.

"While the legality of the site is in question, the appetite that people have for watching this type of content online isn't.

"It is an example of the potential audiences that await media content owners - particularly when it comes to back catalogues - if they can just get their content up and available online".

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