Internet Streaming Video Now Reaches More Mature Audiences.

comScore Networks released the first-ever research report demonstrating the broad reach and demographic appeal of Internet video and audio to U.S. consumers. The research, released in conjunction with StreamingMedia.com, revealed that consumers between the ages of 35 and 54 years old accounted for more than 45 percent of all online video watched in August 2005, according to the report entitled “State of the Consumer Streaming Market.”

Further, the research found that 35 to 54 year-olds are 20 percent more likely to watch online video than the average Internet user. Twenty-five to 34 year-olds are 12 percent more likely than the average Internet user watch a stream online. These age groups have traditionally been viewed as vital targets for marketers across a variety of products and services.

“Advertisers are waking up to the potential of Internet video units. People want more than a two-dimensional experience online, and this powerful medium now reaches everyone with engaging and interesting content,” said Erin Hunter, senior vice president of comScore Networks Media and Entertainment Solutions. “Contrary to public perception, it’s not just ‘college kids’ or ‘bleeding edge’ Internet users who are streaming videos. Publishers are using innovative approaches to deliver their content, using high-quality video product clips, music videos, movie trailers – even full news broadcasts – to
engage their consumer. This creates a fantastic opportunity for advertisers to capitalize on what is now a mainstream audience.”

comScore’s “State of the Consumer Streaming Market” report is based on a representative cross-section of more than 1.5 million U.S. consumers who have given comScore explicit permission to confidentially capture their full browsing behavior, including audio and video consumption. Through its proprietary technology, comScore measures millions of audio and video records each month to report traffic by site, player, format and protocol. comScore also matches each record to demographic data, enabling the first-ever analysis of streamed content and those who consume it.

“For more than ten years, streaming media technology has enabled the delivery of audio and video online, yet in today’s market a huge need still exists for reliable, research-based demographics and statistics,” said Dan Rayburn, executive vice president of StreamingMedia.com. “Prior studies and reports on the growth and adoption of streaming and digital media were limited to small samples and provided very little in the way of detailed collection points. StreamingMedia.com is thrilled to be able to work with comScore to provide such detailed benchmarks for the marketplace.”

Additional key findings from the report include:

— More than 100 million users consume online digital media (streams and downloads) in the U.S. in a month, which represents almost 60 percent of the U.S. online population (97.5 million computers).
— Video consumption crosses all dayparts and demographics, with the primetime and daytime dayparts showing particular strength.
— Nearly two-thirds of all U.S. Internet users in August streamed audio or video through a Portal and almost 50 percent did so from an Entertainment site
— More than 17 percent of U.S. Internet users streamed content from a Music site and 15 percent streamed from a Retail site.

“There is clearly an audience for entertaining video content online,” said Darryl LaRue, vice president of sales, Warner Bros. Online. “More importantly this audience has shown that they are receptive to the right kind of advertising messages if it means they can access content for free. Using comScore’s video ratings we are better able to identify and target audiences with content that is relevant to them and valuable to advertisers.”

For more information at http://www.comscore.com