RESTON, Va., July 1, 2009 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ -- comScore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released a report on visitation and video viewership at entertainment news sites based on data from the comScore Media Metrix and comScore Video Metrix services. Nearly 55 million Americans visited an entertainment news site in May 2009, representing a 7-percent increase versus the previous year. Online video has also become an increasingly important channel for content in the category, with the number of videos viewed growing 53 percent in the past year.

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"With more than one out of every four U.S. Internet users visiting an entertainment news site each month, it's clear that following entertainment and celebrity culture has become a popular online pastime," said Jack Flanagan, comScore executive vice president. "What's also interesting is that Americans are feeding their hunger for celebrity gossip by 'snacking' on these news updates throughout the workday. In fact, nearly half of all time spent on entertainment news sites comes from work computers."

           Time Spent in Entertainment News Category by Location
           May 2009
           Total U.S. - Home/Work/University Locations
           Source: comScore Media Metrix

                                                 Entertainment - News
                                            All           Home          Work
                                          Locations
    Total Minutes (MM)                       893           502           391
    Share of Minutes                       100.0%         56.2%         43.8%

In total, Americans spent more than 893 million minutes - or approximately 15 million hours - on entertainment news sites, with 44 percent of the total time spent in the category occurring at work.

Entertainment News Sites Compete for Growing Audience

More than one-quarter of U.S. Internet users visited an entertainment news site in May 2009. omg!, Yahoo!'s celebrity gossip site, led the category with 20.6 million visitors, nearly doubling its audience in the past year. TMZ captured the #2 ranking with 9.9 million visitors (up 7 percent versus year ago), followed by People with 8.2 million visitors. Significant gains were experienced by USmagazine.com, up 325 percent to 6.5 million visitors, Entertainment Weekly, up 64 percent to nearly 4 million visitors, and The Insider, which grew 215 percent to 2.5 million visitors.

           Visitation to Entertainment News Category
           May 2009 vs. May 2008
           Total U.S. - Home/Work/University Locations
           Source: comScore Media Metrix

                                           Total Unique Visitors (000)
                                             May-08      May-09     % Change
    Total Internet : Total Audience         190,858     193,825           2
    Entertainment - News                     51,285      54,946           7
    omg!                                     12,512      20,654          65
    TMZ                                       9,243       9,930           7
    People                                    9,170       8,285         -10
    USMagazine.com                            1,542       6,559         325
    Entertainment Weekly                      2,394       3,923          64
    E! Online                                 4,017       3,759          -6
    About.com Entertainment                   3,530       3,243          -8
    TheInsider.com                              801       2,522         215
    PerezHilton.com                           2,505       2,457          -2
    AccessHollywood.com                       1,478       2,268          53

"May was one of the heaviest months on record for entertainment news consumption, but it will almost certainly be surpassed in June with the shocking news of Michael Jackson's death driving high volumes of traffic to these sites," added Mr. Flanagan. "While most entertainment news sites will see gains in June, TMZ is primed for an especially big month as the first outlet to report the news, which generated thousands of inbound links to the site."

Entertainment News Sites See Potential in Online Video

In April 2009, 34.8 million videos were viewed on entertainment news sites, an increase of 52 percent versus year ago. TMZ led the category with 2 million video viewers and 10.3 million videos viewed. More than 1.7 million viewers watched 3.8 million videos at omg!, while ETOnline.com served 3.9 million videos to 1.5 million viewers in April.

         Online Video Viewing in the Entertainment News Category
         April 2009
         Total U.S. - Home/Work/University Locations
         Source: comScore Video Metrix
                    Property                        Unique        Videos
                                                   Viewers
                                                    (000)         (000)
    Total Internet : Total Audience                151,652    16,785,432
    Entertainment - News                             9,889        34,781
    TMZ                                              2,056        10,284
    omg!                                             1,729         3,762
    ETOnline.com                                     1,474         3,928
    PerezHilton.com                                    700         2,585
    AccessHollywood.com                                566         1,062
    E! Online                                          495           899
    TheHollywoodVoice.com                              263           509
    SoapOperaDigest.com                                248           557
    StarPulse.com                                      235           400
    Entertainment Weekly                               199           581

About comScore

comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital marketing intelligence. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.

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SOURCE comScore, Inc.

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