comScore released a study of video streaming in France. The study showed that 79% of the French online population (age 15 or older who have accessed the Internet from either a home or a work computer) initiated a video stream in April 2007, compared to 76% in the U.S., 80% in the U.K. and 70% in Germany.
The study also reported that the average French streaming video viewer initiated 64 streams in April 2007, compared to 80 streams per streamer in the U.K. and 62 streams per streamer in Germany. By comparison the average streamer in the U.S. initiated 65 streams per streamer in April 2007.
In France, streamers allocated 13% of their total time online to viewing streaming video.
"With almost 8 out of 10 people initiating a stream in France, video streaming is clearly mainstream, with a user base that is comparable to search, email and shopping," stated Delphine Gatignol, business development manager for comScore France. "What is particularly striking is that French Internet users tend to spend a greater proportion of their total time online viewing streaming video compared to the other countries examined in the study."
The study also reported on the most popular streaming sites. Of the 1.28 billion streams that were initiated in France in April 2007, 22% or 285.7 million were initiated at Google Sites (which include YouTube.com). The second most popular streaming site for streams was DAILYMOTION with 249.2 million streams initiated in April 2007. Other popular streaming sites included France Telecom with 23.9 million streams, Iliad/Free.fr sites with 17.6 million streams and Microsoft Sites with 5.3 million streams initiated during April 2007.
