• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, June 12, 2009

According to Nielsen Online, YouTube continued to rank as the No. 1 video Web brand with 5.5 billion total streams in April. Meanwhile, Hulu continued its growth, increasing 490 percent in total streams year-over-year, from 63.2 million in April 2008 to 373.3 million in April 2009, making it the fastest growing brand among the top 10.

Jon Gibs, vice president, media & analytics, Nielsen Online,  says "... as demonstrated by YouTube's top spot month after month, short form... video has ruled streaming on the Web. Hulu, Veoh and the TV networks have spent... two years... to convince consumers that the Internet can be a good place to watch full length programming... April's strong showings... suggest that consumers are beginning to listen." 

Top Online Video Brands by Total Streams (April 2009 U.S., Home and Work)
Video Brand	Apr-09 Total Streams (000)	Month-over-Month % Change	Year-over-Year % Change	Share of Streams
Overall Online Video Usage	9,452,996	-2.3%	24.2%	100.0%
YouTube	5,490,204	0.2%	35.5%	58.1%
Hulu	373,290	7.1%	490.4%	3.9%
Yahoo!	203,628	-12.2%	-8.1%	2.2%
Fox Interactive Media	201,362	-3.0%	-38.8%	2.1%
Nickelodeon Kids and Family Network	175,917	-10.3%	15.9%	1.9%
MSN/Windows Live	164,422	-2.7%	9.8%	1.7%
ABC.COM	148,830	-15.9%	144.8%	1.6%
MTV Networks Music	143,356	15.7%	359.6%	1.5%
Turner Sports and Entertainment Digital Network	130,559	-5.1%	60.0%	1.4%
CNN Digital Network	112,469	8.7%	32.7%	1.2%
Source: Nielsen Online VideoCensus May 2009 Note: Includes progressive downloads and excludes video advertising.

In April, people between the ages of 35 and 49, were the fastest growing demographic in time spent viewing per viewer, increasing 29% during the past six months. This was 13 percentage points higher than the growth of time spent viewing per viewer for the overall market, which increased 16% over the same 6-month period.

Growth in Time Spent Viewing per Viewer over the Past 6-Months (Demographic Group U.S., Home and Work)
	Nov-08 Time per Viewer (minutes)	Apr-09 Time per Viewer (minutes)	% Change Over 6 Months
Total	178	206	16%
Male	209	249	19%
Female	151	170	12%
2 - 11	113	116	3%
12 - 17	178	190	7%
18 - 24	303	349	15%
25 - 34	253	296	17%
35 - 49	187	243	29%
50 - 64	122	139	14%
65+	67	81	21%
Source: Nielsen Online VideoCensus, May 2009

In April 2009, three of the top five sites-Hulu, ABC.com and NBC.com-ranked by time spent viewing among people 35 to 49 were sites with long-form video. Compared to six months ago, only one of the top five was a long-form video viewing destination. 

"... Advertisers are paying attention," said Gibs They see long-form video sites... as a safe bet for online advertising, recognizing that their key audiences are...  more willing to sit through an online advertisement... much as they do with the TV." 

Top 5 Sites for People Aged 35-49 Ranked by Time Spent Viewing (April 2009 and November 2008, U.S., Home and Work)
Nov-08		Apr-09
Site	Time Spent Viewing (000)	Site	Time Spent Viewing (000)
YouTube	2,740,328	YouTube	2,983,430
Hulu	372,407	Hulu	933,252
Megavideo	225,325	ABC.COM	313,483
CNN Digital Network	153,705	NBC.com	215,302
Nickelodeon Kids and Family Network	143,086	CNN Digital Network	187,471
Source: Nielsen Online VideoCensus, May 2009

Helping to drive the impressive growth for Hulu are unique viewers between 35 and 49, who in April represented 30% of total Hulu viewers. They also spent more time on the site than any other age group, with an average of 416 minutes spent viewing per viewer during the month, 10% more than any other demographic group on Hulu. During the past six months, time spent per viewer

for the 35 to 49 demographic group has increased 154%.

Growth in Time Spent Viewing per Viewer over the Past 6-Months for Hulu (U.S.,Home and Work)
Age Group	Nov-08 Time perViewer (min)	Apr-09 Time per Viewer(min)	% Change Over 6 Months
2 - 11	50	122	143%
12 - 17	78	129	65%
18 - 24	151	379	151%
25 - 34	237	353	49%
35 - 49	164	416	154%
50 - 64	100	284	184%
65+	27	151	232%
Source: Nielsen Online VideoCensus, May 2009

Gibbs concludes that "... Hulu's aggressive marketing campaign, starting with their first TV ad at the Superbowl... (has) given them a bounce that they haven't yet fallen from."

For additional information, please review the PDF file here.