Nielsen Online: Web Video Users Are Day Clickers

There’s more evidence to support the theory that daytime is the Internet’s prime time, at least when it comes to video, based on a new report issued by Nielsen Online.

During the traditional work week—i.e. Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.–65 percent of online video viewers streamed at least one piece of content in October, versus 51 percent of viewers who did so on weekends from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., according to Nielsen Online’s October VideoCensus report. That heavy concentration of at-work viewers is likely bolstered by the fact that 96 percent of those folks have access to broadband connections, found Nielsen.

Interestingly, the third most popular streaming daypart after weekdays and weekend days occurs Monday through Friday from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., when Nielsen found that 49 percent of online viewers streamed at least one clip in October. That figure is perhaps indicative of users logging onto the Web to check out videos while stuck at work or those electing to stream videos during the evening prior to shifting their video consumption to TV. However, the traditional TV prime-time period of Monday through Friday 8:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. also rates high, as 43 percent of viewers watched video on the Web during that time.

Despite the heavy daytime penetration numbers, the overall universe of Web video viewers seems to have plateaued, based on Nielsen Online’s latest VideoCensus report, though the average user appears to be consuming longer videos online. In October, Nielsen found that the number of total viewers dipped slightly (from 124,023 million uniques in September to 120,711 million in October) and the total number of streams delivered was essentially flat versus the previous month. However, time spent per viewer climbed by 10 percent, going from 156.4 average minutes in September to 171.7 in October.