TV Viewers Embrace Long-form Digital Content

Longer-form digital entertainment content destinations continue to gain popularity among US TV viewers.

In March, Netflix remained the biggest digital platform when it comes to the most time spent per viewer, coming in at just under 10 hours a month. Netflix was up 6.6% in March over February, to 9 hours and 53 minutes -- much of this coming from its longer movie content. YouTube, still the biggest video destination by far in terms of uniques and total video streams, sits in sixth place when it comes to time per viewer, now at 2 hours and 17 minutes -- a 5.2% hike. Shorter user-generated videos are being complemented with longer videos, including some full-length TV episodes. Overall, the online video unique visitors -- those using PC/laptops from home and work locations -- gained 3.6% over February to 144.2 million, with total video streams at 14.5 billion, a 7.0% improvement. Streams per viewers were at 100.8 for the month, up 3.3%; and overall, time per viewer was at four minutes and 41 seconds -- 8.0% higher. In terms of unique visitors for March, YouTube was at 111.9 million, up 3.6% versus the previous month; VEVO, 33.3 million, up 3%; Facebook, 31.9 million, 0.6% higher; Yahoo, 26.0 million, an 11.1% improvement; MSN/WindowsLive/Bing, 15.9 million, up 7.1%; and Hulu was at 12.3 million, a 3.7% gain.