Online video-watching – ‘near universal’ – study
The proportion of online adults in the US who watch videos on video-sharing sites has nearly doubled in the last two-and-a-half years, according to a new study by Pew Research.
The study – The Audience for Online Video-Sharing Sites Shoots Up – found that swift growth continues to occur across all demographic groups, far outpacing the adoption rates of many other internet activities.
It reveals that 62pc of US adults have watched a video on sites like YouTube and Google Video, up from just 33pc in December 2006. According to the study, online video watching among young adults is ‘near universal’, with 89pc of internet users aged 18 to 29 saying they watch content on video sharing sites, and 36pc doing so on a typical day.
Overall, 19pc of internet users said they use these sites on an average day, compared to 8pc who said they did so in 2006.
More than a third of internet users (35pc) said they have viewed a TV show or movie online, on sites such as Hulu, up from 16pc in February 2007. And of those who do watch TV or movies online, 23pc said they have connected their computer to a TV screen.
The study points out that watching online videos is now more prevalent than use of social networking sites (46pc of adult internet users are active on such sites) , podcast downloading (19pc) and sites like Twitter (11pc).
The results of the study are based on a telephone interview survey carried out from 26 March to 19 April this year, among a sample of 2,253 adults.