Pew Finds "Dramatic" Increase In Online Video Viewing

Seven in ten adult internet users have used the internet to watch or download video, according to Pew Internet's latest survey.

It says driven by the popularity of online video among 18-29 year-olds, there have been dramatic increases since 2007 in the number of American adults watching comedy, educational videos, movies or TV shows and political videos.

Comedy or humorous videos rose in viewership from 31 percent of adult internet users in 2007 to 50 percent of adult internet users in the current survey.

Educational videos rose in viewership from 22 percent to 38 percent of adult internet users, with movies or TV show videos rising in viewership from 16 percent to 32 percent of adult internet users and political videos rising in viewership from 15 percent to 30 percent of adult internet users.

Pew says on the other side of the camera, video creation has now become a notable feature of online life. One in seven adult internet users (14 percent) have uploaded a video to the internet, almost double the 8 percent who were uploading video in 2007.

Home video is far and away the most popular content posted online, shared by 62 percent of video uploaders. And uploaders are just as likely to share video on social networking sites like Facebook (52 percent do this) as they are on more specialized video-sharing sites like YouTube (49 percent do this).

Pew says while video-sharing is growing in popularity, adult internet users have mixed feelings about how broadly they want to share their own creations. While 31 percent of uploaders say they “always” place restrictions on who can access their videos, 50 percent say they “never” restrict access.

The remaining 19 percent fall somewhere in the middle. And while there is almost universal appreciation for the ease with which video-sharing sites allow uploaders to share video with family and friends, a considerable number (35 percent) also feel they should be more careful about what they post.

(C) NewsRoom America 2010