New documents released Wednesday show online views of videos soared 66 percent in the U.S. in February from a year earlier, with TV networks grabbing just a pittance of those eyeballs.

The numbers from comScore Inc. underscore a problem being discussed by network executives that week at the National organization of Broadcasters annual meeting in Las Vegas, as they search for ways to drive viewers to their Web sites and TV channels.

Some networks said their online strategies involve trying to stay ahead of video pirates who upload broadcast substance online just minutes after it hits the airwaves.

The culprits often post the footage on Google Inc.’s YouTube, the dominant video service in the new survey.

YouTube racked up one-third of the estimated 10 billion views of online video in February, up from 15 percent last year, according to comScore.

“We still see our composition pop up on YouTube,” CNN.com Executive Producer Sandy Malcolm said during the broadcasters meeting. CNN

is a unit of instance Warner Inc.

“You deal with it,” she said. “You try to work with them on rights and things, but I don’t think you can completely stop it. You just try to beat the tide and try to get your substance out as fast as you can.”

Excluding AOL.com, day Warner sites including CNN.com grabbed just a 1.3 percent share of video views on the Web in February, or roughly 133 million views, comScore reported.

Other TV-based entities remained back in the pack, with Walt Disney Co.’s ABC.com attracting 98 million views, or a 1 percent share.

Even as the YouTube juggernaut continued to attract more viewers, comScore analyst Andrew Lipsman said TV networks were fighting back.

He cited last month’s launch of Hulu.com, a video Web site that’s a joint venture of General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal and News Corp.

“It seems there’s a undoubtful amount…

Orginal post by Top Tech News