• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, September 24, 2010

Brightcove and TubeMogul recently published the "Online Video & the Media Industry Quarterly Research Repor"t for the second quarter of 2010. Examining online video discovery, usage and engagement data from a sample of nearly 2,000 news and entertainment websites representing 3.4 billion video streams, the study found that online video consumption grew across all media industry categories. In Q2, unique viewers increased on average by 2.8% per month, with consumers watching 11% more videos month-over-month compared to last quarter.

Video consumption on newspaper sites grew the most over this period, rocketing to 65% more views than the previous quarter due to attention and coverage focused on the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

Overall, the number of unique viewers grew by an average of 2.81% per month in Q2, up from 0.05% per month in the first quarter. Not only were more unique viewers watching, but they were watching 11.2% more videos per month. Audience engagement levels across all of the media verticals were fairly consistent between Q1 and Q2, though some verticals saw a decrease in both minutes watched and completion rates.

Between the first quarter and second quarter, average minutes watched held steady across most categories at 2:00 minutes per stream, though growth was achieved by television broadcasters by 3.1% and magazines by 2.1%. Radio saw the biggest decline, dropping from 1:32 minutes to 1:13 minutes in Q2.

Minutes Watched Per View By Quarter
Category	1st Q min:sec	2nd Q min:sec
Broadcaster	2:56	3:01
Magazines	1:19	1:21
Music videos	1:51	1:49
Newspapers	1:30	1:22
Online Media	1:54	1:32
Radio	1:52	1:13
Source: 2010 Brightcove, Inc. and TubeMogul, Inc, September 2010

Referral traffic for online video from Facebook and Twitter is growing faster than from traditional search engines. At current growth rates, Facebook will surpass Yahoo! within the year to be the second only to Google for video referral traffic. Not only are Facebook and Twitter drawing in viewers, but they are also leading to the highest levels of engagement for video on television network and music entertainment websites, says the report

Consumers who find marketing and e-commerce video via Facebook and Twitter have the longest viewing times (1:24 minutes and 1:18 minutes respectively), while traffic originating from Yahoo! search (0:52 minutes) and display ads (0:52 minutes) tied for shortest.

This quarter's report also includes a special feature focused on brand marketing and online video, with findings from a global survey of brand managers and analysis of platform data from marketing and e-commerce websites:

• Nearly 60% of respondents said they plan to invest more in online video in the next 12 months.
•  More than 65% of brand managers indicate that the primary focus of their online video initiatives is awareness, followed by lead generation (21%) and e-commerce (12%).
•  70% of respondents said they plan to add mobile video to their marketing mix in the next 12 months.

Editor's Note:  Because this report includes significantly more detail with charts and graphs than would be appropriate to reproduce in a "Brief," interested readers are encouraged to visit the Brightcove release here in order to download the more complete PDF file.

Please go here for more detail.