Comscore Enhances Online Video Measurement to Better Align with TV

But here we are today, 5 years later, and online video has become a massive media channel in its own right. 180 million people in the U.S. watch online video for an average of 13 hours each month. And what was once a huge repository of primarily user-generated content video has now evolved to become a secondary (or in some cases, primary) channel for viewing professionally produced long form content like movies and TV episodes. In a recent study about the interplay between TV and online viewing of TV programming, we learned that online video typically adds an incremental 6% to the size of a TV audience for original scripted programming. That incremental viewing audience is even greater among 18-24 year olds (13%) and 25-39 year olds (9%).

As online video has evolved, so too has its ability to monetize through advertising. When we first began measuring this medium, video ads were virtually non-existent but today they account for about 12% of the total number of videos viewed online. As this shift occurred, Comscore recognized it was time to rethink the way we were measuring online video in a way that not only accounted for ads and monetization rates, but also in a way that makes online video more directly comparable with TV.

So with Video Metrix 2.0, you are going to see a different look in how we present this data to better conform to the new web video paradigm. Among the innovations available are the ability to segment between online video content and ads, several new reporting metrics to better evaluate video ads and their reach and engagement within video audiences, and TV-show level reporting. Our new ad reporting will also help advertisers understand which of the sites featuring predominantly long-format content are monetizing most successfully and reaching audiences with video ads throughout their programming. Below is a view of the average number of video ads delivered over the course of June to viewers on the site:

We will also have the ability to provide show-level reporting for the major TV broadcast sites. Below are the June rankings of top shows being viewed online ranked by number of viewers for ABC.com, CBS.com and NBC.com. (Please note that these figures represent viewing during TV’s summer hiatus, and online audiences should surge as fresh episodes hit the air this fall.)

We hope you are as excited about these enhancements as we are, and we look forward to continuing to bringing you the most detailed, accurate and innovative online video measurement in the industry!

Note: Video ads include streaming video-advertising only and do not include other types of video monetization, such as overlays, branded players, matching banner ads, homepage ads, etc.