Digital Video Grabs 180 Million Visitors Monthly

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San Francisco -- Big video usage numbers continue to come to the digital video industry -- even if things have tapered off a bit.

In speaking at the OMMA Video conference in San Francisco, Dan Piech, senior product management analyst of comScore, says the business is now firmly established and mature.

After some major growth in 2006, Piech says stats have leveled to 180 million visitors watching videos per month. That comes to 85% of all Internet consumers, 200 videos per person and around 13 hours per month.

Key for some major TV networks and their TV shows -- also known as "premium video" -- comScore says there has been a shift of regular TV networks' customers viewing video online on a consistent basis: 4% in 2009, now 8% in 2010.

Seventy percent of people say the biggest reason for watching a TV show online is to watch a missed episode. The next reason -- for 57% of Internet customers -- is convenience. In third place, 56% of digital viewers want to see a past episode.

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Most revealing is the fourth reason. Piech says 42% of people watch online because there are less ads versus on traditional TV.

He says the data indicate consumers now want fewer digital ads versus a year ago. In 2010, comScore says consumers' limitations are around five and half minutes to six minutes per episode of a TV show. The year before, consumers would allow around six to seven minutes messaging.

Good news for premium TV digital sellers, says Piech, is that the business still delivers on average less than 5 minutes of digital video messaging per episode.

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