More than 157 million people, the largest such US audience for a single month, watched nearly 19,5 billion online videos in June, according to the industry-tracking firm’s Video Metrix service.<\/p>\n
“The surge in video viewing is primarily attributable to important news stories circulating in June, including Michael Jackson’s death and the Iranian elections,” comScore said.<\/p>\n
Particularly “sizeable” gains were seen by MTV-owner Viacom Digital; Microsoft websites including MSNBC, and Turner Network, which owns CNN, according to comScore.<\/p>\n
Google websites held firm as the most popular US online spots for video, with the number of visitors topping 112 million in a new monthly high.<\/p>\n
YouTube served up 99 percent of the more than 7,6 billion videos viewed at Google sites.<\/p>\n
Viacom Digital ranked second with 774 million videos viewed and Microsoft properties were third with 696 million views.<\/p>\n
Blinkx was close behind with 623 video views logged at the website.<\/p>\n
Microsoft websites drew 73 million video viewers and Fox Interactive was the third most popular with 59 million viewers, according to comScore.<\/p>\n
Jackson died in Los Angeles on June 25 at age 50 from an apparent cardiac arrest and police are investigating whether abuse of a powerful drug, Propofol, was involved.<\/p>\n
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election in June sparked weeks of massive protest.<\/p>\n