In a study that tracks broadband video consumption on multiple platforms in the US, six in ten internet users watch online video content weekly in 2007, up 36% from the previous year.

Horowitz Associates' report released last month, Broadband Content and Services 2007, reveals the rapid growth in consumption of broadband video among adult Internet users. Sixty-one percent of high-speed Internet users watch/download online video content at least once a week and 86% do so on a monthly basis, compared to 45% and 71%, respectively, in 2006.

News and user-generated, non-professional content are the most often viewed genres, followed by movie previews/trailers, music videos, and previews/segments of TV shows. Indeed, reported weekly viewing of full episodes of television shows doubled from last year, with 16% of high speed Internet users watching TV online on a weekly basis.

NBC and ABC are the networks Internet users mention the most frequently for online TV content, with Grey's Anatomy being the most often mentioned TV programme viewed online.

While consumption of broadband video has grown, the study shows that television is still the preferred platform for traditional TV content. The vast majority (70%) of Internet users who watch TV online say they do so because they missed the episode on TV. About two out of ten (18%) of these respondents say they watch TV shows online to watch them a second time (after having watched them on TV), or that they watch TV shows online just when they happen to find them or when someone else tells them about them (20%). Conversely, one out of ten (13%) Internet users who watch TV shows online say they watch them directly online, and not on regular TV.

Penetration of video-enabled handheld devices is on the rise; concomitantly, so is viewing of video content
on these devices. Over one quarter (27%) of Internet users have a mobile phone, iPod/MP3 player, or PDA with video capability, and an additional 23% do not have this capability, but are interested in getting it.

Among those with video-enabled handheld devices, one-third (35%) watch video on their devices at least weekly and 62% do so at least monthly, translating to eighteen percent (18%) of Internet users overall who watch video content on a handheld device at least monthly. This figure is up from 8% just one year ago.

Story filed 09.01.08