ComScore: Americans viewed 7.5b video ads in February, with Hulu the top ad destination

According to comScore, US Internet users watched nearly 38 billion videos of online video content in February. This is one of the findings about online video in the US that the research firm released today.

In total, 179m Americans watched online content last month – 83.3% of the Internet audience. As expected, Google Sites is the most popular destination, since this category includes YouTube, which tops the ranking both in terms of unique users and of time spent on the platform:

It is worth noting that ‘content’ also includes ads; according to comScore, video ads accounted for 16.6 percent of all videos viewed and 1.3 percent of all minutes spent viewing video online.

This means that Americans viewed no less than 7.5 billion video ads in February, and it’s a segment in which Hulu has been breaking records. In February, it streamed a whopping 1.5 billion ads, making it the top video ad property in the US.

This has to do with the time users stay on its platform to watch movies and TV shows; while Hulu only ranks #9 for unique users, it is second on the list when it comes to minutes spent per viewer.

As for Facebook, it confirms its position as a video destination, with almost 240,000,000 videos streamed last month, and with only slightly less unique users than VEVO. As we reported, VEVO recently introduced a revamped video platform, for which users can only sign up via Facebook. In other words, its success may also benefit Facebook, not to mention the fact that it is now also available as a Timeline app.

However, VEVO still remains the most popular YouTube partner channel in the US, scoring 50.8m viewers:

Overall, this confirms that the vast majority of Internet users in the US are engaging with online videos, but also with online ads. In that sense, offering long-form content seems a valid strategy, and helped transform Hulu in the top ad destination.

How users feel about it is another question, and the fact that Hulu’s paid side Hulu Plus also runs ads often raises criticism, though it certainly contributes to the depth of its ad inventory.