WASHINGTON, DC — Since 2006, the percentage of adults who watch video online has nearly doubled since 2006, according to the latest report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Data was collected in April 2009.The audience for video-sharing sites like YouTube and Google Video continues to grow across all demographic groups, far outpacing the adoption rates of many other internet activities, Pew researchers noted in the report. Sixty-two percent of adult internet users have watched a video on a sharing site, up from 33-percent who reported the activity in December 2006. Online video watching among young adults is near-universal: 89-percent of internet users ages 18-29 now say they watch content on video-sharing sites, and 36-percent do so on a typical day.
Over time, online video has become more deeply integrated into daily life, and has started to move into spaces typically reserved for traditional television viewing. Overall, 19-percent of internet users say they use video-sharing sites on a typical day. In comparison, just 8-percent of internet users reported use of the sites on a typical day in 2006.
While much of the content on video-sharing sites is user-generated, there is also a growing archive of professional content available through YouTube and newer network-sponsored video portals like Hulu. Efforts to lure viewers to these portals appear to be paying off, as more than a third of internet users now say they have viewed a television show or movie online. Just 16-percent of internet users said they had watched or downloaded movies or TV shows during a 2007 study.
Among those who watch TV shows or movies online, 23-percent said they have connected their computer to a television screen so they could view video from the internet on their TV. That amounts to roughly 8-percent of all internet users.
Watching online videos on sites like YouTube is more prevalent than the use of social networking sites (46-percent of adult internet users are active social networkers), podcast downloading (19-percent of internet users) and the use of status updating sites like Twitter (11-percent).
Young adults continue to lead the adoption curve in online video viewing, but adults ages 50 and older comprise a larger audience every year. Among internet users ages 50-64, 41-percent now say they watch video on sites like YouTube, up from 34-percent in 2008. Likewise, 27-percent of wired seniors ages 65 and older now access video online, compared with just 19-percent who did so last year.
Wireless connectivity has emerged as a strong predictor of online video viewing. Seventy-one percent of those with wireless connectivity watch videos on video-sharing sites, compared with 38-percent of those who do not access the internet wirelessly. Fourteen percent of cell phone users have watched video on their devices, up from 10-percent in 2007.
