October was a record breaking month for video views on CNN.com and other sites.  CNN had 134 million videos streamed by 8.3 million unique visitors, according to the latest numbers released by Nielsen Online.  Yahoo! registered the most uniques with 9.9 million, but had only 61 million views.  msnbc.com beat CNN in uniques with 9.5 million, but had a few less videos streamed.  See the full numbers below. 

CNN’s video streams were up 179 percent over last October.  A CNN spokeswoman told Beet.TV that this was the most video streamed in one month. We assume the growth in traffic is largely attributable to the presidential election.  We would anticipate a drop-off after Election Day.  TechCrunch reported yesterday that traffic to the Huffington Post dropped dramatically after Election Day.  Update: An AllThingsD report by Peter Kafka attributes a drop off in traffic to Hulu as post election, post-SNL Sarah Palin streaming.

On Election Day, I visited the New York newsroom of CNN where I interviewed Susan Grant, Exec VP of CNN News Service.  She shares the extraordinary streaming numbers that day.  I’ve republished the interview tonight.

Andy Plesser, Executive Producer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source: Nielsen Online, VideoCensus
U.S., Home and Work
Period: October 2008
Top
  10 Current Event & Global News Sites Ranked by Total Streams for October
  2008
Site Total Streams (000) Unique Viewers (000)
CNN Digital
  Network
133,643 8,263
MSNBC Digital
  Network
120,264 9,539
Yahoo! News 60,748 9,877
ABCNEWS
  Digital Network
19,314 3,058
AOL News 12,556 3,871
WorldNow 11,083 2,554
Fox News
  Digital Network
10,709 2,141
CBS News
  Digital Network
4,420 888
Fox
  Television Stations
3,390 1,100
BBC 3,120 925
Includes
  progressive downloads and excludes video advertising.