• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, November 15, 2013

For the second month in a row, AOL held its position over Google as the Web’s top video ad property.
 
The company that Tim Armstrong revived recorded a staggering 4 billion video ad impressions in October, according to the latest figures from comScore.
 
Led by YouTube, Google sites came in second in October with 3.6 billion ads, followed by BrightRoll Platform with 2.6 billion, LiveRail.com with 2.5 billion and TubeMogul Video Ad Platform with 2 billion video ads served.
 
Leading all properties, AOL also delivered the highest duration of video ads at 1.8 billion minutes during October. (Industrywide, the time that consumers spent watching video ads totaled 9.2 billion minutes.)
 
Lifting all boats, U.S. consumers viewed more than 24.5 billion video ads in October -- with ads reaching 56% of the nation’s population an average of 141 times during the month.
 
According to comScore, AOL surpassed Google as the Web’s top video ad property for the first time in September. In large part, analysts attributed the coup to AOL’s decision to buy Adap.tv earlier this year for $405 million. (comScore’s September figures marked the first time that AOL and the video ad platform were counted as one unit.)

“AOL’s purchase of Adap.tv was based on the growth of video, so on one level this is validation of the acquisition,” Forrester analyst Jim Nail told Online Media Daily in October.
 
Viewership remains another story. Thanks to YouTube, Google sites continue to dominate the field with 164.8 million unique viewers in October. Facebook ranked a respectable second place with 70.1 million viewers, followed by AOL with 62.3 million, NDN with 50.6 million and VEVO with 49.6 million unique viewers.
 
Of note, Maker Studios debuted in the ranking in the No. 10 spot with 30.5 million unique viewers in October.
 
Overall, 49.1 billion video content views occurred during the month, with Google Sites generating the highest number at 16.6 billion, followed by Facebook with 1.4 billion and AOL with 1.3 billion.
 
Industrywide, video advertising is on track to reach $4.09 billion this year, which would represent an increase of 41%, according to eMarketer. The research firm expects programmatic ad buying to surpass $3.3 billion -- an increase of 73% year-over-year.