The digital media battleground will continue to flare up this year. Online video is expected to be at the forefront, with components like mobility and social integration giving it a heady push towards success. The recent comScore report unveiled online video rankings for December 2011. A whopping 182 million US internet users watched online video content in that month alone. Here are some more figures to ponder on.

Who Rules Video Content?

It is no surprise that Google is still the undisputed leader in online video content, thanks to the sensational YouTube. This site amassed 157.2 million unique viewers in December 2011. Vevo came in second with 53.7 million, winning a very close fight versus Yahoo! sites that garnered 53.3 million unique viewers for the month.

The online video space recorded 43 billion views in just 31 days.  The majority of these again coming from Google sites that generated 21.9 billion views. They also demonstrated the highest average in user engagement, with an average of 7.9 hours out of the overall 23.2 hours watching online video content. Hulu was the runner-up with 3 hours.

Who Rules Video Ads?

Unlike the online video content ranking where Googles sites were the runaway winner, the video advertising impressions segment chronicles a close fight between companies. In totality, US internet users viewed 7.1 billion video ads. Hulu emerged at the top with almost 1.5 billion views and Adap.tv in second with 1.1 billion. Tremor Video copped the third place with 942 million.

Overall, there were 3 billion minutes spent watching video ads. Adap.tv this time gained the advantage over Hulu and others by raking a total duration of 636 million minutes of video ads.

Youtube Best Partner Award Goes To…

Vevo. Among all music channels that paired with world’s favorite online streaming station, Vevo came in first place with 53.5 million viewers followed by Warner Music and Machinima with 31.7 million and 22.7 million viewers respectively. The highest engagement was still awarded to Vevo with n average of 67 minutes per viewer.

The music scene’s been a good point of integration for online video sites, as YouTube recently announced that it has recorded 1 trillion of playbacks in 2011 and revealed videos that collected most number of “hits.”

Online Video Streaming Hits Home

The home media landscape is suddenly drifting to digital content.  This may explain why there is a gaining breeze of interest for internet TV—a market where both biggies and newbies alike are continuously exploring. This is in congruence with what the recent CEA study which revealed 68% of US consumers interact with video content in the home.

Chris Ely, Industry Relations Manager at CEA briefly explains how online video streaming at home is affected by external industries like mobility:

“Technology allows consumers to access almost any content they desire instantaneously on Internet-connected devices. The rise of mobile broadband has resulted in the emergence of connected devices that are able to stream content directly from the Internet, and services that allow consumers to store and access content without the need of a hard drive.”

NetFlix Faces Lawsuits

The online video industry gave birth to big names like Netflix. The streaming service entered the British market last week in the hopes of invading the European region. But the party is cut short when the news broke of class-action suits coupled with plunging stocks.  The leading online video streaming organization is now summoned to face lawsuits from a group of shareholders who are accusing the management of disseminating misleading information and false statements pertaining to its business practices and contracts with other media companies and studios.

A portion of the suit reads: “Later, when the defendants’ prior misrepresentations and fraudulent conduct became apparent to the market, the price of Netflix common stock fell precipitously, as the prior artificial inflation came out of the price over time.”

The online video trends are positively showing that there are still numerous avenues of opportunities available for exploration, with growth factors like big data, proliferation of mobile and connected devices, the rise of social networks and video advertising.  There’s certainly no stopping now.