ComScore, a leading online media metrics company, today released its online video rankings for September 2012. Unsurprisingly, Google leads the internet in both unique viewers and video ads.
According to the new rankings, Google websites, led by YouTube had over 150 million unique viewers in September. YouTube viewers watched over 13 billion videos for an average of 419 minutes per viewer. Following far behind Google are Yahoo, AOL, and VEVO, with a bit over 50 million unique viewers.
While Google may be far ahead of other platforms when it comes to unique viewers, the company isn’t leagues ahead when it comes to ad impressions. In September Google delivered nearly 1.8 billion ads, followed closely by the BrightRoll Video Network with 1.3 billion and Hulu with 1.1 billion. Of note here is Hulu’s massive number of ads per viewer, which sits at 51 – far more than any other platform on the list. Any viewer who’s watched Hulu lately will realize the reason for this number, as the ad breaks for TV shows on the network have lengthened to the point where they are beginning to rival network TV.
Along with the video rankings, ComScore has also provided rankings for the top 10 YouTube partner channels. VEVO (48 million unique viewers) and Warner Music (24 million unique viewers) predictably top the list, showing that YouTube is a main source online for viewing music videos. What is interesting is that Machinima, the video games channel, places fourth on the list with 22 million unique viewers and almost 70 minutes per viewer. At a time when video game programming is disappearing from traditional TV, it seems Google’s Machinima investment is paying off.