The increasing Australian appetite to download and view movies online has sparked a significant surge in audience to many of the key video and movie sites, according to the latest insights from the monthly Nielsen Digital Ratings.

Seven of the top 10 video/movie brands recorded gains during April 2016. Event Cinemas, Hoyts and Village Cinemas also witnessed double digit gains in unique audience over the same period, likely driven by school holidays and releases such as ‘Captain America: Civil War’ and ‘Disney’s Jungle Book’.

In the news and information category, the top three leaders – News.com.au, smh.com.au and ABC News Websites – remained consistent, while Yahoo7 News Websites jumped from seventh to fourth with a unique audience increase of 9 per cent. Meanwhile, the BBC jumped into the top 10.

Not surprisingly, Anzac Day ceremonies encouraged a 137 per cent increase in traffic to the Australian War Memorial channel, which saw its unique audience jump from 213,000 to 505,000.

Travel applications also attracted additional unique audiences with Qantas Airways, the current mobile app leader in its field, witnessing a significant 202 per cent gain in unique audience from 211,000 to 638,000. Skyscanner and Jetstar apps, ranking second and third in the category, also saw double digits gains of 32 per cent and 20 per cent respectively – from a unique audience of 208,000 to 275,000 (Skyscanner) and 143,000 to 172,000 (Jetstar).

Sports sites also maintained strong gains, particularly the AFL and NRL sites, as well as Fox Sports Pulse. The AFL saw an increase in unique audience numbers of 22 per cent from 3.2 million to 3.9 million, while the NRL reported a 13 per cent lift from 1.9m to 2.1 million. Fox Sports Pulse reported a 46 per cent increase from a unique audience of 833,000 to 1.2 million.