There’s a new second banana behind Google/YouTube in Comscore’s Online Video Rankings. As it continues to roll out a big helping of original content, AOL has passed Facebook, scoring more than 71 million unique viewers in August.
AOL’s original series have been a big boon, and they are responsible for a good portion of the site’s 13.3 unique viewer increase between July and August. According to Adweek, recent debuts #CandidlyNicole, Hardwired, and Anthony Eats America have accounted for 23 million views, helping AOL increase its total monthly traffic to more than 991 million views. Even AOL’s engagement is up, with the average viewer watching six more minutes of video than he did in July. Only YouTube, Yahoo, and NDN sport better figures.
The online video ad agency shook off a down month in July and once again surged to a record high of 22.7 billion impressions. This percentage represents 32.7% of all online video views, an even higher mark than June’s already massive 30% figure.
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The multi-channel network landscape remained fairly stagnant with one notable exception: Machinima saw its unique viewers continue to drop, as it is now down to 9th place in that category at just 17.05 million, which is less than half of Fullscreen’s 34.54 million. The gaming network continues to easily pace the field in terms of engagement, with the average Machinima viewer watching an hour and half of content, but the low uniques number may have played a role in the network’s decision to lay off 22 of its workers earlier this week. Machinima has been clear about its intention to build a home for its creators outside of YouTube, and if it continues to bleed uniques, it will have to double down on that plan.
