CTV announced this morning that its online network experienced double-digit growth in both revenue and traffic last year. According to HBX and Omniture combined, it served up 337 million total video streams throughout 2008, up 108% since 2007, when it counted 162 million video streams.
Since CTV.ca revamped its Video Player last September, So You Think You Can Dance Canada saw 3.4 million video streams, Degrassi: The Next Generation saw 2.5 million video streams and Corner Gas saw 1.2 million video streams, according to Omniture data. Overall, CTV.ca saw 58 million video streams last year, nearly four times the 15 million video streams seen in 2007 according to HBX, and in November, global Internet researcher comScore ranked the broadcaster #1 in Canadian-owned online video property.
‘The market has become much more receptive to online video,’ CTV VP digital media Stephan Argent tells MiC. ‘Not only audiences but advertisers are looking to online as one of the key components in building their business.’
October, which was CTV.ca’s top performing month as a result of the Canadian and US elections and the launch of the fall season, saw 36% growth over the same time last year with 6.4 million unique visitors to the site, according to HBX.
Other CTV online properties like mtv.ca and muchmusic.ca saw 166 million total video streams for both websites, according to Omniture, up 38% from the 2007 record of 120 million streams.
TSN.ca had 7.2 million unique visitors in February, its top performing month as a result of the NHL trade deadline, resulting in 70% growth compared to the same time the previous year. The site’s busiest day of all time on Feb. 26, NHL Trade Deadline Day, saw 14.26 million page views, up 39% over 2007.
October was also the top performing month for TheComedyNetwork.ca, which had 6.6 million video views as a result of The Daily Show‘s ‘Indecision 2008’ coverage, increasing more than five-fold the site’s 1.3 million video views in January.
October was BNN.ca‘s top performing month as well. It saw 375,000 unique visitors as a result of the meltdown in the markets, nearly double the average unique monthly visitors in 2007.
