Comedy Sites, Apps Increase Video Time

CollegeHumor Despite its strong video presence, YouTube continues to trail rivals in key areas -- advertising, for one, as Hulu attracted more than 1.5 billion video ad impressions in February compared to YouTube’s roughly 1 billion, according to comScore.

New research shows that several video properties -- led by CollegeHumor.com, Break.com, and ComedyCentral.com -- led YouTube in “return rates.” In 2011, more than 60% of users who viewed a video on CollegeHumor.com returned for more, according to a new report from Read It Later, a popular service that allows users to bookmark Web pages and specific content from their personal computer, tablet or smartphone.

Among Read It Later’s roughly 4 million users, Break.com scored a return rate of exactly 60%, followed by ComedyCentral.com, Hulu, and Vevo -- all of which achieved return rates of over 50%. Along with Netflix and Veoh, by contrast, YouTube scored a return rate of about 43%.

“YouTube's return rates are actually about normal, and what we expected,” explained Mark Armstrong, editorial director at Read it Later. “More significant is the high loyalty with video from sites like CollegeHumor, Break.com and Comedy Central. These are sites that specialize in specific brands of comedy and original programming that resonate with their core audience.”

YouTube representatives did not respond to a request for comment by press time. 

Across the board, the number of videos that Read It Later users are saving is up by more than 120% over the past year, while YouTube ranks as the most-saved domain. However, it currently offers optimized viewing for YouTube and Vimeo, which it admits is likely to affect their respective prominence among other properties. Specifically, Read It Later users can watch full-screen clips inside the app via a video player for both YouTube and Vimeo. Other video sites are shown in the “Web view.”

The company is also seeing new evidence that its app is helping people consume longer video than what has been traditionally embraced online. In an analysis of its Top 1,000 saved videos, the median length was nearly 30 minutes. “What this shows is that with the right tools, users are embracing both short-form and long-form video content,” Armstrong said.

When Armstrong looked at the 1,000 most popular videos from July through December, he found that 32% of the Top 1000 videos were over five minutes long. With 68% of videos saved under five minutes, short-form still rules.

Ads and return rates aside, Google’s video properties -- helmed by YouTube -- still led the way with 147.4 million unique viewers in February, according to comScore. Yahoo Sites came in second with 60.9 million, followed by Vevo with 52 million, Facebook.com with 43.6 million, and Viacom Digital (which includes ComedyCentral.com) with 43.2 million.

In February, nearly 38 billion video views occurred, with Google Sites generating the highest number at 16.7 billion, followed by Hulu with 951 million and Yahoo Sites with 721 million.

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