SEASIDE, Calif. – Online users viewed more than 511 billion digital videos during 2012, across professional, user-generated-content (UGC) and social networking channels, destinations, screens and platforms. The figure represents a year-over-year an increase of 20.3 percent, according to AccuStream Research.

While the firm didn’t specifically mention adult video in its findings, broad trends indicated by the data provide clues to consumer attitudes.

Overall, professionally produced, hosted and managed video advanced 17.9 percent to 104.4 billion views. Professionally managed sites (e.g., Netflix, Hulu) that publish episodic content for broadcasters, cable networks and syndication partners captured a 22.5-percent cumulative viewing share, up from 8.3 percent in 2006.

UGC and social networking channels, which are increasingly populated with pro and semi-pro branded channels, saw total volume rise 21 percent to 406.8 billion views.

Mobile-, tablet- and connected-device-related views averaged 13.2 percent across the professional realm of sites, while UGC, led by YouTube’s channels and thematic content ecosystem, tallied an estimated 22.2 percent mobile total.

Although growth rates across digital video channels are synching as they converge, audience viewing patterns surrounding self-selected, personal-preference programming diverge, Accustream researchers noted in the report “Digital Video Views 2012-2015: Site, Brand, Category Share and Platform Analytics.” Pro site audiences, which outnumber their UGC brethren by a wide margin, are opting to click and then lean back, allowing longer program selections to be monetized against greater allocation of in-stream video inventory. Movie and television content combined accounted for 30 percent of total views in 2012.

UGC counterparts are short-form specialists. Sites that publish UGC videos averaged 84.4 views per site per month per user, up only 4.4 percent over 2011 levels. The UGC audience’s appetite for music, comedy and entertainment video predominates, with consumption patterns stimulated by lean-forward search, discovery, sharing, snacking and library grazing.

According to the report, since 1998 the pro video channel produced a 14-year compound annual growth rate of 52.5 percent; UGC produced a seven-year CAGR of 99.4 percent.