Rich Fiscus
13 Feb 2008 23:44
Analysts at comScore believe the Hollywood writer's strike may have already had a measurable affect on viewers. In their report covering online video viewing for December of 2007. According to the organization's monthly report, "nearly 141 million Americans viewed online video in December."
“December represented a considerably strong month for online video viewing,” said Erin Hunter, comScore executive vice president of media and entertainment. “With the writer’s strike keeping new TV episodes from reaching the airwaves, viewers have been seeking alternatives for fresh content. It appears that online video is stepping in to help fill that void.”
As usual, the news was better for YouTube, and parent company Google than for any other site. In fact it's fair to say that due to YouTube, Google is more popular for online video than any ten competing services. In December the search juggernaut continued their dominance, being responsible for delivering nearly a third of all online video to an audience encompassing an estimated 43% of all internet users in the U.S.
The next closest service, Fox Interactive (owner of MySpace), was responsible for less than 4% of all video, delivered to an audience comprising less than a quarter of U.S. internet users.