Straight out of left field, the Joost Video Network has assumed the number 2 spot in comScore’s Video Metrix “Top 100 Properties”, second only to Google.
The Joost network, which is now operated by Adconion after the company’s acquisition of the ill-fated European startup’s assets back in November 2009, claims a reach of 67 million unique viewers per month.
To put that in perspective: that’s approximately 38 percent of the total US Internet population who are consuming videos each month.
According to Adconion’s press release, the Joost Video Network, which consists of hundreds of major video destination sites, showed an aggregate of over 100 million videos to consumers in February. Perusing through the current selection of channels on Joost.com, I’m fairly surprised that the network is drawing so many views, as it consists mainly of niche video destinations that I would estimate only a small number of people would be interested in.
Apparently, at least according to comScore, the long tail in online video is really long.
Update: a commenter says:
Adconion have been delivering “video” ads as rich media banners. Effectively embedding video creatives into standard 300×250 display units – and doing this under the brand of “Joost”. This number is therefore a measure of the reach of Adconion’s rich media display network, and is in no way connected to the numbers of viewers watching video content on the joost portal.
This is correct – comScore Video Metrix is a report of consumer video consumption of both content and ads across the Web. Nevertheless, the same goes for Google and a host of other video networks in the list of top 100 properties, so the position of the Joost Video Network on that ranking is still highly notable. Even if just for potential advertisers.