• Print

Canada ranks highest in online video viewing, ComScore reports

ComScore's latest Video Metrix data reports on the Canadian online video market, released this week, found that 21 million Canadians viewed more than 3.1 billion videos online in February, and that the average Canadian online video viewer spent 10 hours viewing videos, up 53% from last year.

It also reports that Google sites hold the commanding lead in the Canadian video market, leading the online pack as the most popular video destination in February, with more than 1.6 billion videos viewed (52% share of all videos), and of those YouTube.com accounts for nearly 99%.

Microsoft sites ranked as the second most popular video destination, with 55.6 million videos viewed (1.8% share), followed by Yahoo! sites with 45.7 million videos (1.5% share).

The report also found that more than 21 million Canadian viewers - or 88% of the total Canadian Internet population - watched an average of 147 videos per viewer in February. Google sites attracted the most viewers, with 18.2 million watching an average of 89 videos per viewer during the month. Microsoft sites drew 7.1 million viewers, while Facebook ranked third with 5.8 million viewers.

"Canada's high broadband penetration and tech-savvy Internet users make it an optimal environment for online video to flourish," says Bryan Segal, VP of sales for ComScore Canada. "The combined forces of reach, high engagement and 'sight, sound and motion' make online video a particularly attractive brand-building vehicle for online advertisers."

Other notable findings from the February 2009 report include:

- The average online video viewer in Canada watched 605 minutes of video in the month, the largest amount of time of the five countries reported by ComScore Video Metrix (UK 540 minutes, Germany 466 minutes, France 390 minutes, US 312 minutes).

- The average online video was 4.1 minutes in length, up nearly 25% from the previous year's 3.3-minute average.

- More than 1.6 billion videos were viewed by 18 million viewers on YouTube.com in February, representing nearly 90 videos per viewer.

- Nearly 88% of the total Canadian web population viewed online video in February, the highest penetration of the five countries currently reported by comScore Video Metrix.

www.comscore.com

SEARCH