I frequently receive e-mails with trend reports that I find interesting, and I thought I’d share this one with you.

Online video viewing continues to rise dramatically in the U.S. as total streams increased by 31.5% and time spent viewing increased by 45% in Jan. from a year ago, according to Nielsen, whose new rankings placed DVD rental/movie streaming service Netflix in its top 10 for the first time. Netflix attracted 7.3 million video streamers in Jan., up 15% from the previous month, and ranked #5 it terms of total streams delivered for the month. Hulu saw its monthly audience decline for the first time, but increased its total streams by 3.3% to 813 million for the month.

Top Online Video Brands by Unique Viewers (January 2011, U.S.)
Video Brand                 Unique Viewers (000) MOM % Change in Viewers
YouTube                         112,764                      -0.8%
Facebook                          32,328                       2.0%
VEVO                               32,230                         N/A
Yahoo!                             25,511                       2.5%
MSN/WindowsLive/Bing     17,285                      26.1%
Hulu                                  11,924                       -4.9%
CollegeHumor Network     10,020                       -2.4%
AOL Media Network            9,236                       -4.5%
Fox Interactive Media         7,597                        1.6%
Netflix                                   7,394                      15.6%
Source: The Nielsen Company

Top Online Video Brands by Total Streams (000) (January 2011, U.S.)
Video Brand                   Total Streams (000) MOM % Change in Streams
YouTube                            8,460,419          -2.6%
Hulu                                     813,169           3.3%
VEVO                                   346,764            N/A
MSN/WindowsLive/Bing         246,675          36.3%
Netflix                                    200,223          37.5%
Yahoo!                                 186,606            7.6%
Facebook                              159,075           -1.5%
Nickelodeon Family & Parent  136,555           7.4%
Megavideo                            135,925           4.2%
MTV Networks Music              133,535          79.1%
Source: The Nielsen Company

The percentage of US audiences who watch professionally-produced TV shows online is expected to double from ’09 levels by 2015 as consumers “edge closer” to going over-the-top to rely on the internet for their multichannel programming, according to a new eMarketer report. In 2011 69.4 million adults will watch TV shows at least once a month through some type of internet connection, (connected TV set, computer screen or mobile device.) That number will approach 100 million adults, or 48% of all adult internet users, by 2015.

Also according to an eMarketer report, video ad spending will achieve the highest gains in market share among the formats. While other formats remained fairly static, video alone will double from a 5.5% share in 2010 to 11.3% in 2013, new eMarketer estimates show. And spending for video ads will continue to escalate at a furious clip in 2011—39% compared with 11% for banner ads and 10% growth for search.