Almost 90% Of UK Web Users Watch Video Online

Almost 90% of the UK online population watched over three million internet videos in December, according to new data from comScore.

The figures show that Google’s YouTube remained the market leading video site in the UK, US, Canada, France and Germany.

In the UK, the BBC is the second most popular source of video, indicating the popularity of video even before the full Christmas launch of the iPlayer (see 3.5 million Programmes Watched On BBC iPlayer At Christmas).

Last week the corporation announced that more than 42 million programmes have been accessed on the online catch up TV service in the first three months of 2008.

The total number of requests for downloads and streams of BBC programmes in March were 17.2 million, rising from 14 million in February and 11.2 million in January. There were 1.1 million iPlayer users each week over the three-month period on average (see Over 42 Million Shows Accessed On iPlayer).

Microsoft’s sites, which include MSN, were the third most popular networks for video. Yahoo! was listed fourth and MySpace’s parent company Fox Interactive Media was the fifth most popular video network in the UK.

comScore said Canada has the highest reach of video by web users, with 89% of the population, or 19 million users, regularly watching video online during December. They typically watched 112 videos during the month.

The US has the largest number of users, with 124.4 million but the smallest proportion of video users at 78%.

comScore said the figures show the viability of video as a medium for advertisers and marketers who want to reach an engaged but often elusive online audience.

“Recent years have seen an explosion in online video viewing, not just in the US but globally, representing a robust online advertising opportunity for marketers,” said Jack Flanagan, the executive vice-president of comScore.

comScore www.comscore.com