U.K. Online Video Viewing Audience Grows 10 Percent during Past Year to Nearly 30 Million Viewers

BBC Sites Lead Traditional TV Broadcaster Market with 55 Million Videos Viewed

LONDON, U.K., March 17, 2009 – Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released January 2009 data from the Comscore Video Metrix service, indicating that the total U.K. online video viewing audience has grown 10 percent during the past year to 29.6 million unique viewers age 15 and older.

Google is U.K.’s Most Popular Online Video Property

Google Sites once again ranked as the top online video property in the U.K. with 23.7 million viewers (up 14 percent versus year ago), driven by the popularity of YouTube.com, which accounted for 99 percent of all videos viewed on the property. BBC Sites ranked second with 6.8 million viewers, followed by Microsoft Sites (4.3 million viewers), Facebook.com (3.6 million viewers), and Yahoo! Sites (3 million viewers).

Top U.K. Online Video Properties Ranked by Total Unique Viewers (000)*
January 2009 vs. January 2008
Total U.K. – Age 15+, Home & Work Locations**
Source: Comscore Video Metrix

Property

Jan-2008

Jan-2009

% Change

Total Internet : Total Audience

26,806

29,574

10%

Google Sites

20,679

23,664

14%

YouTube.com

20,042

23,523

17%

BBC Sites

5,746

6,771

18%

Microsoft Sites

4,963

4,344

-12%

Facebook.com

1,489

3,582

140%

Yahoo! Sites

3,402

2,998

-12%

Amazon Sites

1,620

2,945

82%

Fox Interactive Media

3,829

2,587

-32%

AOL LLC

N/A

2,198

N/A

Megavideo.com

800

2,189

174%

Metacafe

1,835

1,940

6%

*Rankings based on video content sites; excludes video server networks. Online video includes both streaming and progressive download video.
**Excludes Internet activity from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

BBC Has Strong Lead in Online Video Viewing among Big 5 Broadcasters

A total of 4 billion videos were viewed online in the U.K. in January 2009, of which 99.5 million (2.5 percent) were watched on the Web sites of the top 5 television broadcasters: the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, and Sky. The majority of these videos were viewed on BBC Sites, which captured a 54.7 percent market share among the Big 5, followed by Channel 4 (23.8 percent share), ITV Sites (13.6 percent share), Sky Sites (6.8 percent share) and Five.tv (1.1 percent share).

Top 5 U.K. Television Broadcasters Ranked by Videos Viewed Online*
January 2009
Total U.K. – Age 15+, Home & Work Locations**
Source: Comscore Video Metrix

Property

Videos (000)

Share of Videos Viewed on Big 5 Broadcaster Sites

Big 5 Broadcasters

99,548

100.0%

BBC Sites

54,455

54.7%

Channel4

23,724

23.8%

ITV Sites

13,527

13.6%

Sky Sites

6,764

6.8%

Five.tv

1,078

1.1%

*Rankings based on total videos viewed on sites of top 5 traditional U.K. Television broadcasters.
**Excludes Internet activity from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

Other notable findings from January 2009 include:

  • 80.1 percent of the total U.K. Internet audience viewed online video.
  • The total U.K. online video viewing audience watched a combined 280 million hours of video content.
  • 23.5 million viewers watched over 2 billion videos on YouTube.com (86 videos per viewer).
  • 1.1 million U.K. mobile phone subscribers visited YouTube.com.
  • 4.8 million U.K. mobile phone subscribers used their phone to watch any kind of TV or video.

About Comscore
Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo

Ayaan Mohamud
Comscore, Inc.
+ 44 (0) 207-099-1775
worldpress@comscore.com