The third quarter 2009 A2/M2 Three Screen report from The Nielsen Company quantifies the strong growth in over-the-top video content driven by offerings such as YouTube and Hulu. More people are viewing video on the Internet—and they’re viewing it more heavily than ever.
Nielsen estimates that 138 million Americans watched video on the Internet during third quarter 2009–an increase of 14.8% over the same period last year. Those viewers watched an average of three hours and twenty-four minutes of Internet video per month—up 34.9% over the same time frame.
Researchers attribute the growth, in part, to the increased use of video on social networking sites. “The embedding of videos into existing social networks only strengthens the viral nature of online video,” the researchers wrote.
Although Internet video is still most popular with younger adults, it is making inroads with somewhat older demographic groups. Respondents in the 18 to 24 age group had the highest level of Internet video viewing, at nearly six hours per month, followed by the 25 to 34 age group, which viewed nearly five hours per month. But the 35 to 44 year and 45 to 54 year segments had the next highest levels of hours watched–both of which were above three hours per month.
Gains in Internet video viewership are not coming at the expense of other forms of video viewership. The number of people watching all types of video—including watching TV in the home, watching timeshifted TV, and watching video on a mobile phone—increased between third quarter 2008 and third quarter 2009, according to Nielsen. Notably, the number of people watching timeshifted TV from a digital video recorder increased 25.5% and the average number of monthly hours involved rose from just under six hours to just above seven hours a month—an increase of 21.1%.
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