Given research findings from Experian Hitwise, it’s no surprise that Netflix is expanding into the United Kingdom early next year.
Internet users in the U.K. spend a staggering 240 million hours each month watching online video content, according to a new report from Experian Hitwise, “Online Video: Bringing Social Media to Life."
The researcher found that the U.K. Internet population made roughly 785 million visits to online video websites last month, reflecting an increase of 36 percent year over year. YouTube – the third most popular website in the U.K. behind Google UK and Facebook – is largely driving the growth, according to Experian Hitwise, an online competitive intelligence service. U.K. Internet users spend 184 million hours viewing YouTube content each month, with an average session on Google’s popular video website lasting 20 minutes.
Video-on-demand services from BBC iPlayer and ITV Player also reflect a significant percentage of total Internet visits to video sites, the report said, and niche sites including videozer, MSN Video and Netflix’s rival Hulu also have seen a major increase in traffic.
“There are now more visits to video websites every month than to email providers, travel or sports sites, which represents a huge opportunity to the savvy marketer," said James Murray, marketing research analyst with Experian Hitwise. “The average Internet user will make 18 visits to video sites a month and almost half will visit at least three different sites. While YouTube dominates the market, the increase in traffic to video-on-demand and more niche sites demonstrates that content is what matters most to today’s Internet users and they’ll go to whatever site has the content they’re most interested in viewing."
The findings could spell good news for Netflix, which is expanding into the U.K. and Ireland in early 2012.
