Given just how much everyone loves online video (or 73.7% of everyone rather), I wasn’t too surprised at the plethora of stats available online. When you have over 4 billion videos being watched on YouTube alone, you know that there’s going to be a ton of information to play with.

Some of the highlights include the massive increase in older online video viewers, and the fact that men aged 18-34 are so much more likely to watch user-generated videos than their female counterparts. But the following offers a lot more, so please feel free to dive right in:

From Comscore  Number of Online Videos Viewed in the U.S. Jumps 13 Percent in March to 11.5 Billion  May 12th 2008:

• Google sites had more than 4.3 billion videos viewed in March
• YouTube accounted for 98% of all videos watched on Google Sites
• Nearly 139 million U.S. Internet users watched an average of 83 videos per viewer in March
• 73.7 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience viewed online video
• 84.8 million viewers watched 4.3 billion videos on YouTube.com (50.4 videos per viewer)
• The average online video duration was 2.8 minutes
• The average online video viewer watched 235 minutes of video

From WebProNews Statistics for Online Video Viewing June 23rd 2008:

• 134 million people in the U.S. went online to watch an average of 81 videos in April
• 71% the total U.S. Internet audience viewed online video
• The average online viewer watched 228 minutes of video
• 18-34 year olds were the heaviest viewers watching 287 minutes each
• 82.1 million viewers watched 4.1 billion videos on YouTube
• 46 million viewers watched 481 million videos on MySpace
• The average online video duration was 2.8 minutes

From Herald Tribune Whichever Screen. People are Watching July8 2008:

• The average American spent 127 hours of time with TV in May, up from 121 hours in May 2007
• 26 hours on the Internet, up from 24 hours last year
• More than 282 million people watch television in a given month and nearly 162 million use the Internet
• The amount of online video viewing is low compared with TV - 2 hours and 19 minutes a month on average - and Nielsen does not have a comparable estimate for last year
• Americans project that 4.4 million subscribe to mobile video on their phones
• With 217 million people carrying mobile phones in the United States, wireless video is still far from the mainstream
• A survey found that the average user watches 3 hours and 15 minutes a month, a significant amount of time to be watching such a comparatively small screen
• Children ages 2 to 11 use the Internet far less than other age groups, but they spend almost one-third of their online time watching videos

From eMarketer Local Online Video Ads, Dollars July 7th 2008:

• Local online video ad revenues will hit $1.5 billion by 2012, up from $11 million in 2007, according to The Kelsey Group's "US Local Video Forecast (2007-2012)" report

Credit: Chris "Mojo" Denbo

From Blog Maverick When do People Watch Online Video March 16th 2007:

• About 50% of all video viewing during weekdays happens from 7am to 5pm (as opposed to 37% for the entire week)
• 5pm to 8pm is when 14% of all online viewing activity takes place
• 12% (prime time TV hours). On the weekends, that falls to 6%

From ReadwriteWeb Watch Out TV: YouTube is Taking Over  June 5th 2008:

• TV was down to 70% of video watching time from 75% last year, while "personal computer" jumped from 11% in 2007 to 19% this year
• In the 12-17 age group, PC watching was 24%, while TV was down to 55% of screen time

From Ars Technica Nielsen: YouTube is from Mars, streaming video is from Venus February 14th 2008:

• Men aged 18 to 34 were over twice as likely to check out user-generated video sites as women, with YouTube being their number one destination
• Those watching user-generated video did so most often at night and on the weekends, between the hours of 11 PM and 6 AM (which is quite a contrast with Blog Maverick’s stats showing that the majority of ALL videos are watched during office hours).

From Scoop Independent News Future Bleak for User-Generated Digital Video Ads 11 July 2008:

• User-Generated Video (UGV) will continue to account for close to half of total online video streams between 2008 and 2013, but disappointingly will produce no more than 4% of ad-related online video revenue at any time during this period
• UGV currently accounts for 42% of online video streams, yet generates less than 4% of video ad-related revenue. Conversely, professional online video (including both short- clip and long-form content) accounts for 58% of streams and 96% of ad-related revenue - a reality unlikely to change over the next five years

From Mahsraqi Statistics May 23rd 2008:

• There was a 58% increase in Internet users aged 50-64 visiting video sharing sites compared to a year ago
• 22% of online Americans record their own videos and 14% post part of videos online
• 57% of online video viewers share video links with others

Percentages on a particular day:

• 10%/37% News
• 7%/31% Comedy
• 3%/16% movies or TV
• 4%/22% Music
• 3%/14% Sports
• 2%/13% Commercials
• 2%/15% Political
• 3%/19% Animation
• 3%/22% Educational
• 1%/6% Adult
• 2%/6% Other