Analytics firm comScore has just released its latest statistics for video streaming sites in the United States for the month of June, and at first glance the results are quite surprising: the top video sites have seen a major shakeup, with many of the top sites abruptly falling in the rankings.
The cause, of course, is the Michael Jackson effect — media organizations around the world dedicated huge amounts of coverage to the pop star’s tragic death on June 25, and many people turned to the web to learn more. Other breaking news that month, including the Iranian election controversy, also likely contributed to the growth seen by news properties.
Hulu, which has ranked as the third most popular video site in the United States for the past few months, has dropped down to seventh. Likewise, Fox Interactive Media, which includes MySpace, has dropped from second to fifth.
So who took their place? Video search engine Blinkx jumped from sixth place in May with 300,641 views to fourth overall with over 623,000 (Note:all figures in 000’s). Microsoft also saw a big jump, rising from fifth place in May with 310,560 overall streams, to third place in June, with 695,661 streams (much of this gain was likely due to increased traffic to MSN and MSNBC). Turner, the parent company of CNN, also saw its video views nearly double.
Finally there’s Viacom, the media conglomerate that includes Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, and BET. Viacom vaulted from seventh place in May with 281,368 views to second place in June, with a whopping 773,554. Again, much of this can likely be attributed to the Michael Jackson news that was featured prominently on MTV, but Nickelodeon also saw strong traffic, which may be related to the summer season when kids generally watch more TV.
Comscore….huge sham.
Gripes:
- Not even close tracking for the long tail of the internet. Not in the ballpark, not in the parking lot, not even in the same state.
- You want to work with them…..you need to pay them money.
- Their panels are way too small and don’t incorporate new browsers.
- Paperwork gestapo for TAL’s. Ever heard of an online form?
Quantcast is eating these guys lunch, but the ad agencies don’t seem to care. I recently had a whole slide in preso on how big of a sham Comscore is.
“Comscore needs to wake up and realize that we’re in a Long Tail world where top 10 lists matter less. Marketers want to know about the influence circles within the niches that matter to them – and those niches are often tiny.”
For once, “The Michael Jackson Affect” doesn’t illicit terror in young children
Lmao. ^5
Thank you so much for this explanation. We really needed it.
another reason for hulu drop is that there are no good shows in the summer. they will pick back up again when the networks produce more shows.
yeah i hope so, though they have added tons of ABC content. Almost all that’s on abc.com is now on Hulu.
you probably should clarify that the viewing statistics you listed are in the thousands unit not the ones.
Good point, thanks.
watch this space for comments from weeping fans
Video “steaming”? You guys always have a few big typos…it’s unprofessional.
why is techcrunch hidden at quantcast?
Hey Jason -
I think we at Break Media were actually ahead of Facebook with 17mm+ unique viewers for June. While we rep other sites, all of them are content based and it is not much different than Turner/Viacom/AOL including numerous properties beneath them either. Why would we not be included?
Keith
During the week before and after his death We Are Hunted collected over 500,000 news articles, blogs and tweets. We also continuously sampled 100 music charts from around the world.
Analysis of this data yields some (ir)relevant insights:
- Stevie Wonder is a really connected guy.
- Michael’s death was worth about 10 album launches. His funeral worth 4 albums.
- Twitter might be a useful indicator of music sales.
- We have seen an unprecendented flood of new torrents since his death.
- Michael’s death was a bigger story than the Iranian election.
- The day after he died, he was in the top 3 of nearly every music chart in the world.
- 1 in 5 songs played on the day he died was his.
- He was older than any other major celebrity in the news that day.
- About 1 in 12 news articles published on the day he died mentioned him. 1 in 4 on music and celebrity sites.
the-online-impact-of-michael-jacksons-death
Incredible the media impact MJ’s death had. Literally stopped Twitter in its tracks.
tour media: Michale Jackson Dangerous World Tour @ http://bit.ly/h6Tz6
Check out tour media: Michale Jackson Dangerous World Tour @ http://bit.ly/h6Tz6
Michael Jackson was a legend, even our company got a video submission for his tribute. Check it out:
http://www.vira...p;vid_id=100536.