• by Wayne Friedman , April 14, 2010

NBC.com is tops again in March -- according to one Internet measurement company -- when it comes to video and non-video content. But other research companies may differ.

For the first quarter, NBC.com Web sites posted higher numbers among a broad range of Internet metrics -- unique visitors, total minutes, and total pages viewed, says a new Omniture and comScore Media Metrix report.

NBC.com was No. 1 with 8.98 million unique visitors, and 140 average minutes per users, and 115 page views. ABC was next at 7.89 million uniques, 100 average minutes and 106 total page views.

After this came CBS with 6.72 million visitors, 94 minutes, and 106 total page views. Fox was at 4.05 million visitors, while CW had 2.81 million.

NBC held the same spot for the entire first quarter. But ABC had more total pages viewed.

Source: Omniture/ comScore Media Metrix

One caveat: NBC's top spot isn't an absolute, as other measuring services, such as Nielsen VideoCensus, have said ABC has been No. 1 in many categories in recent periods. Executives say ABC and NBC generally trade off being first in comparing unique visitor totals.

For instance, in the January 2010 Nielsen Online VideoCensus Report, ABC.com said it had 5.1 million unique monthly viewers to NBC.com's 4.3 million. CBS.com was in third place at 4.1 million; CWTV.com was at 904,000 and Fox.com at 782,000.

The difference is that Omniture and comScore Media Metrix count not just video but other non-video content. Nielsen VideoCensus pulls just long and short-form video -- which is why unique visitors generally for all networks are somewhat lower than the comScore Media Metrix. Nielsen's other product, NetViews, like comScore, encompasses more than video content.