• by May 16, 2005

While the MSNBC cable network founders, MSNBC.com appears to be surging.

MSNBC.com, not to be confused with MSNBC cable, was ranked the No. 1 news and information Web site by Nielsen/NetRatings for the second consecutive month. According to Nielsen, MSNBC.com racked up 23,598,000 unique users in April and saw a 40 percent increase in page views over March.

With regard to streaming video, which is free on MSNBC.com, the site reports that it now delivers an average of 30 million streams per month. Streaming video ad revenues increased 486 percent year-over-year. MSNBC.com serves over 30 million free video streams per month.

MSNBC.com streams live news events and breaking news footage to a loyal, at-work audience. The site gets video from NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, Fox Sports, and other providers. Here's a tally of sorts: On MSNBC.com, more than 4 million video streams of news related to the Pope's death were streamed between April 1 and April 8. In TV terms, that's something like four TV ratings points.

Another note to media planners and marketers: While you're wheeling and dealing this week and spreading all that green around, think online video.