Commentary

In One Year, Nearly Double the Number of Ads Streamed Online

by P.J. Bednarski , Staff Writer, July 18, 2013

Last June, you’ll recall, we were just getting pretend excited by the prospect of the presidential race, and if I’m not mistaken, most of us were not even aware of Psy or “Gangnam Style.”

In June 2012, there were 11 billion video ad streams, according to comScore’s Online Video Rankings. That was a record, but almost every month is. Google Sites (basically YouTube) alone had 1.4 billion video ad streams.

Fast forward to June, the one that ended a month ago. In June 2013, there were 20 billion video ads viewed in this country, a record again, and Google Sites had 3.3 billion of them.

That's nearly double, in case you missed it.

To put the stats more in your face, 183 million Americans watched 44 billion content videos in June. The year before 180 million Americans watched 33 billion.

As Tubefilter.com points out, for the third straight month, ads now make up 30% of all online viewing, a circumstance it says is as much due to the speed up of ad-like content on one end, and less production of content that isn’t advertising based on the other end.

You may see this as good news. I’m not so sure. One sure route to buzzkill is an ad-laden environment. Perhaps online video is different because the ads are so dang entertaining. But after awhile, as the evidence has shown, the drumbeat of advertising gets annoying, even if it is entertainingly annoying.

And here’s proof those commercial network boys know how to bring their ballgame with them. Among advertising-supported video sites Hulu “subjected” unique viewers with an average 73 ads in June, according to HomeMediaMagazine.com. That’s twice the frequency of YouTube, they point out.

The comScore data wasn’t too good for Tremor Video, either. The company, slugging through a disappointing IPO, recorded 772.8 million ad views this June compared to 836.3 million at the same time last June.

Another year-to-year comparison that jumps out: AOL in June 2012 had 38.1 million unique views, putting them seventh on the list. This June, AOL was up to 51 million, putting it third. In ad views, a year ago AOL wasn’t on the top ten. This June, with 670 million ad views, it’s in ninth place.

pj@mediapost.com

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3 comments about "In One Year, Nearly Double the Number of Ads Streamed Online".

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Bill Day from JW Player, July 18, 2013 at 3:55 p.m.
Thanks PJ:

I think that it's important to understand the context of comScore Video Metrix numbers; what they mean and what they don't in terms of the video landscape.
• The rankings combine data from a diverse set of players, from traditional networks that serve video in banner display ads, to true in-stream video networks serving streaming video ads in streaming video content, to exchanges which often are a mix of in-banner display and in-stream video.
• It also now includes a number of players that operate technology platforms such as SSPs and DSPs, where the comScore beacon could be fired by an entity that did not actually sell the ad.
• Finally, the rankings do not take into account content quality that the advertising appears in. Content quality in video can range from UGV to premium.

All these factors make the picture cloudier than it may appear as the video ad market matures and requires greater analysis to draw strong conclusions.

Thanks for the chance to comment,

Bill Day

CEO, Tremor Video
Reply

Paula Lynn from Who Else Unlimited, July 18, 2013 at 6:40 p.m.

What percentage were not voluntary, that is, desired to watch by the consumer or voluntarily clicked on an ad to watch ? A viewer must watch a :30 or :60 spot to watch a :60 story.

Doug Garnett from Protonik, LLC, July 23, 2013 at 12:57 a.m.

Agreed, then, PJ. Mostly for me it's news clips. And there's not many given how ubiquitous we are told video online should be. The worst? News stories entirely embedded in video like in HuffPost. I HATE that one - trying to force us to reject quickly scanned and consumed written word and embrace a painfully linear form (video) to get our news slowly. I'm a video guy... I'm just careful to use it when valuable and recommend other approaches when they are better...