Nielsen Announces September U.S. Online Video Usage Data

Total Video Streams Viewed Online Increase 25 Percent Year-Over-Year

New York, NY – October 12 2009 – The Nielsen Company today reported overall online video usage and top online brands ranked by video streams for September 2009.

Year-over-year, unique viewers, total streams, streams per viewer and time per viewer were up, led by 25 percent growths in total streams and time per viewer.

Note: Effective with June 2009 data reporting, Nielsen has made several enhancements to the VideoCensus service, including a panel that is 8 times larger, more granular reporting and improved accuracy and representativeness. These enhancements provide the highest quality data to our clients and the marketplace. For some sites, trending of previously-reported data with current results may show percentage differences attributable to these product enhancements and should only be compared directionally.

Table 1: Overall Online Video Usage (U.S.)

Source: Nielsen VideoCensus
Note: Includes progressive downloads and excludes video advertising

Table 2: Top Online Brands ranked by Video Streams for September 2009 (U.S.)

Source: Nielsen VideoCensus
Note: Includes progressive downloads and excludes video advertising

VideoCensus Methodology and Metrics:

Nielsen Online’s VideoCensus combines patented panel and census research methodologies to provide an accurate count of viewing activity and engagement along with in-depth demographic reporting. Online video viewing is tracked according to video player, which can be used on site or embedded elsewhere on the Web. For example, if a “Saturday Night Live” clip from NBC.com is embedded on a personal blog, that video would be attributed to NBC because of the NBC video player.

A unique viewer is anyone who viewed a full episode, part of an episode or a program clip during the month. A stream is a program segment. VideoCensus measurement does not include video advertising.

Source: The Nielsen Company