Video Streaming: Content Duration Up, Total Viewers Down in U.S.

Despite the growth in video duration, viewers actually dropped during that period. In January, 2012, 181 million U.S. Internet users watched about 40 billion videos compared to the 182 million users who watched 43.5 billion videos in DecemberGoogle Sites was by far and away the largest provider of video content, which was driven by the video-viewing site YouTube. By providing 18.6 billion videos, Google Sites captured 151 million unique viewers during the month of January.

Behind Google was VEVO, which provides 716 million videos. The company garnered 51 million unique viewers during the month of January.

Yahoo Sites took third place followed by  Viacom Digital in fourth. After that, Facebook.com was the fifth place content provider in terms of total unique visitors; then, Microsoft Sites.

The study also targeted online video ad properties. In total, U.S. Internet users watched about 2.3 billion minutes of advertising online during the month of January. Internet video ads reach 47.3 percent of the entire U.S. population.

Hulu provided the most video ads during the month of January, with more than 1.4 billion video ads being shown on their network. Roughly 540 million minutes were spent watching ads on Hulu during the month.

The research data ends with the most popular YouTube partner channels. Populartity is determined by minutes spent per viewer on the channel along with total unique visitors.

VEVO collected the most total unique visitors with roughly 50 million in one month. Below VEVO was Warner Music with 29 million unique visitors. Machinima, Maker Studios Inc, FullScreen and Big Frame followed respectively.