• by Wayne Friedman , October 28, 2009

NBC may continue to have problems on traditional TV -- but that's not the case with its new digital video platforms. In September, the first month of the new TV season, NBC.com rocketed past ABC.com, CBS.com and Fox.com, according to comScore Media Metrix, to become the No. 1 network online.

NBC had 11.4 million monthly unique visitors. ABC.com was next at 6.8 million; CBS.com had 6.4 million; CWTV.com was at 5.4 million; and Fox.com was at 3.9 million.

NBC also led in the number of visits during the month, with 18 million; total minutes, 148 million; and average time spent per visit, 8.1 minutes.

A chief reason for the bump, according to the network, was new high-profile special content attached to the premiere of its shows, such as Pam and Jim's wedding site from "The Office," the re-launched "Jay Leno's Garage" and the Sullivan Bros. Carnival on the "Heroes" site.

Special content from "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien," which has a feature called "In the Year 3000," and "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon," which ran a piece on "The Real Housewives of Late Night," also pushed up NBC's numbers.

The big September helped lift NBC.com's three-month average to 6.7 million unique visitors for July through Sept., which also claimed the top spot. NBC also led in total monthly minutes -- 92 million -- and time spent per visit: 7.3 minutes.

After NBC for the three-month period, ABC.com was second at 5.3 million; CBS.com, 5.2 million; Fox.com, 3.1 million; and CWTV.com, 2.6 million.

The overall Internet audience for September was 198.4 million unique visitors, according to comScore. This was slightly up from August, which was at 197.3 million; and from July, which was at 195.5 million.