Led By Brightroll, Online Video Ads Hit 15.8 Billion US Views In May

Online video advertising is on a roll. After scoring a record 13.2 views in April, the industry continued its rapid growth in May. Per the latest Comscore Online Video Rankings, US online viewers watched 15.8 billion ads last month, with Brightroll overtaking Google as the top provider.

Brightroll’s huge growth provided the biggest lift. It grew by nearly 500 million views between April and May, scoring a total of 2.62 billion hits to Google’s 2.55 billion. Beyond the top two, most major players in the online video ad industry also ticked upward.

The average viewer also watched 15 more ads in May than he did in April. At first glance, it appears engagement rose as well, with the average viewer watching 37.8 minutes

of ad videos a month, more than six minutes above April’s total. Upon further examination the average time spent watching an ad was 23 seconds in both April and May; therefore, viewers are simply watching more ads rather than spending more time on each individual ad.

Beyond the ad industry’s growth, May was another fairly stagnant month across the online video landscape. The big three independent multi-channel networks (Fullscreen, Machinima, and Maker Studios) all saw slight downticks in monthly uniques, as did VEVO and ZEFR. Google continues to dust all other platforms in terms of uniques, views, and engagement. Meanwhile, AOL saw the most dramatic drop. Despite debuting a wave of original series, it had 33% fewer uniques in May than in April and dropped from third place to ninth.

So, all in all, I guess it was a slightly down month for everyone except the ad companies. Money talks.