ComScore: Average Web surfer watched less online video in August

The average U.S. Internet user watched 18 hours of online video, down from 18.5 hours in August, ComScore said Thursday.

"I think that is fairly normal month-to-month fluctuation," ComScore VP of industry analysis Andrew Lipsman told FierceCable. "August is a vacation month, so sometimes it sees a bit of softness relative to July."

About 180 million Internet users watched online video in August, generating a total of 6.9 billion viewing sessions, according to ComScore.

YouTube  and other sites owned by Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) were the most popular in August, generating 162 million unique viewers. Google was followed by music video site Vevo (62.3 million); Facebook (51.7 million); MTV, VH1 and Comedy Central parent Viacom (NYSE: VIA) (49.9 million); and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) (46.4 million).

While Hulu was ranked ninth in total unique viewers, it generated a whopping 192.4 minutes of average viewing per viewer. 

ComScore broke out traffic from YouTube's various partner channels for the first time. Vevo was the most popular channel, generating 60.6 million unique viewers, 788.3 million videos viewed and 69.9 minutes of viewing per average user. It was followed by Warner Music (30.9 million viewers); gaming site Machinima (17.7 million viewers); Maker Studios (10 million); Demand Media (8.4 million); Revision3 (6.6 million); and Associated Press (5.7 million).

For more:
- see the news release

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