18 March 2009 | Author: Yasmin Sulaiman

UK online video audience grows 10 per cent in 2008

As declining economic forecasts across the globe continue to dominate world headlines, it's heartening to see statistics that show growth in certain sectors. This week, the Advertising Association's revelation that online spending grew 17 per cent year-on-year in 2008 had online marketers everywhere rejoicing. Now, new statistics from comScore show that the UK online video viewing audience grew 10 per cent January 2008 to January 2009 - growth that could indicate the burgeoning potential of online video advertising and the addition of another weapon in the advertising sector's online arsenal.

According to comScore's findings, Google Sites were the top ranked online video property in 2008, with a 14 per cent increase to 23.7 million viewers, with YouTube accounting for around 99 per cent of this. BBC Sites - like the ever popular BBC iPlayer - came in second, with 6.8 million viewers, an 18 per cent increase over the course of the year. Other major success stories in the UK online video viewing arena include Facebook, with 3.6 million viewers and a 140 per cent growth, Amazon Sites, which saw their video viewing audience grow by 82 per cent to nearly three million, and Megavideo, who posted a 174 per cent audience expansion from 800,000 to 2.2 million viewers in 2008.

However, there are some telling causalities amongst comScore's list. Microsoft saw its audience fall by 12 per cent to 4.3 million, while Fox Interactive Media saw a much larger drop of 32 per cent, from 3.8 million to 2.6 million viewers. Pioneer search engine Yahoo! - who some believe have been a renewed lease of life with new CEO Carol Bartz at the helm after a disastrous 2008 - saw a 12 per cent drop too; however, if its new web video strategy (due to be implemented this month) takes off, the struggling search engine could hopefully see some improvement in next year's comScore video audience measurement results.

The comScore report's online video audience measurements for January 2009 alone also throws up some interesting results. Not surprisingly, BBC sites led the way over the month with a 54.7 per cent share of videos being viewed on one of the UK's big five broadcaster sites. Channel 4's catch-up service came in second with 23.8 per cent, while ITV sites accounted for 13.6 per cent share. If these sites continue to enjoy success, they could provide a new avenue of monetisation for ITV in particular, who recently announced pre-tax losses of £2.7 billion. What's more, if ITV's proposed merger with Channel 4 should ever become a reality, the two broadcasters could potentially create a new online video superpower with the strength to challenge the dominance of the BBC iPlayer, trumped only by YouTube in the UK.

However, despite YouTube's position as the runaway leader with the online video viewing audience in the UK in 2008, it's possible that 2009 could see this position on much shakier foundations. The decision taken by YouTube earlier this month to block UK users' access to premium music videos supplied or claimed by record labels could have a significant effect on its overall viewing figures for the year. If its issues with the Performing Rights Society for Music aren't cleared up soon, more and more viewers may start turning to emerging competitors - like Megavideo - for their music video needs.

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