TV Viewers Embrace Long-form Digital Content

NetFlix

Longer-form digital entertainment content destinations continue to gain popularity among U.S. TV viewers.

In March, Netflix remained the biggest digital platform when it comes to the most time spent per viewer, coming in at just under 10 hours a month. Netflix was up 6.6% in March over February, to 9 hours and 53 minutes -- much of this coming from its longer movie content.

Tudou.com, a big China-based video site that is similar to YouTube but offers far more full-length movie and TV content, picked up 4.5% month to month to 8 hours and 30 minutes. U.S.-based premium TV content site, Hulu, which runs full-length TV episodes, now averages 5 hours and 13 minutes a month, a 3.3% improvement.

Broadcast TV network The CW witnessed its CWTV digital area drop 16.4% to 2 hours and 58 minutes. The CW typically gains or loses because it can be in heavy rerun mode, versus the big four broadcast networks, which tend to run more original TV episodes.

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YouTube, still the biggest video destination by far in terms of uniques and total video streams, sits in sixth place when it comes to time per viewer, now at 2 hours and 17 minutes -- a 5.2% hike. Shorter user-generated videos are being complemented with longer videos, including some full-length TV episodes.

Other notable gainers included the European-based Justin.tv, where its U.S. video viewers showed its largest month-over-month rise, nearly 17% to two hours and 17 minutes.

Another TV-based video site -- Nickelodeon Family & Parents digital areas, which sits in 10th place at 1 hour and 32 minutes -- dropped 31.3% from February.

Overall, the online video unique visitors -- those using PC/laptops from home and work locations -- gained 3.6% over February to 144.2 million, with total video streams at 14.5 billion, a 7.0% improvement. Streams per viewers were at 100.8 for the month, up 3.3%; and overall, time per viewer was at four minutes and 41 seconds -- 8.0% higher.

In terms of unique visitors for March, YouTube was at 111.9 million, up 3.6% versus the previous month; VEVO, 33.3 million, up 3%; Facebook, 31.9 million, 0.6% higher; Yahoo, 26.0 million, an 11.1% improvement; MSN/WindowsLive/Bing, 15.9 million, up 7.1%; and Hulu was at 12.3 million, a 3.7% gain.

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