Hulu trails only YouTube in online video streams
DIGITAL: Nielsen says viewers, time spent watching Web content growing
By Danny King -- Video Business, 9/22/2009
SEPT.22 | DIGITAL: Has Hulu struck back?
Yes, says Nielsen. The long-form online video site, launched by NBC Universal and News Corp. last year, was the second-most-popular U.S. online video site after Google's YouTube in August in terms of video streams, Nielsen reported last week.
Hulu's approximately 10 million unique viewers streamed 393 million videos last month, more than No. 3 site Yahoo! and No. 4 MSN/WindowsLive/Bing.
Hulu's streams also were more than Viacom's Nickelodeon Kids and Family Network and Time Warner's Turner Network combined, Nielsen said, the No. 5 and No. 6 sites, respectively. Nielsen's study contrasts with a ComScore report released last month that said online video viewing with Hulu in June was overtaken in popularity by Viacom's Nickelodeon and Time Warner’s Turner Network sites. In ComScore's report, Hulu ranked No. 7 in online video popularity, with Viacom's sites the second-most-popular behind YouTube, and Turner at No. 6.
Viacom's MTV Networks site was the ninth most popular in August, according to Nielsen. Google's YouTube, at No. 1, had 108 million unique users streaming 7.2 billion videos last month.
The Nielsen report also reflects the growing popularity of the type of long-form videos that are Hulu's specialty. Although streams per viewer rose 20% from a year earlier, time per viewer surged 39%.
Total video streams last month surged 41% from a year earlier, and the number of people streaming videos on the Web increased 18%, according to Nielsen.
