Online videos stealing viewing time from TV

More interested in watching clips on the Internet than TV supposedly

27 November 2006 11:13 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Online video sites like YouTube are starting to eat into TV viewing time according to a new survey by the BBC and ICM.

In the survey, which questioned over 2000, 43% of Britons who watch video from the Internet or on a mobile device at least once a week said they watched less normal TV as a result.

And online and mobile viewing is rising - three quarters of users said they now watched more than they did a year ago.

But online video viewers are still in the minority, with just 9% of the population saying they do it regularly.

But two-thirds of the population said they did not watch online and could not envisage starting in the next 12 months.

Big media institutions are starting to see the appeal of video. Research by the marketing agency The Viral Factory found that the infamous Star Wars clip had been forwarded 900 million times.

The runner-up, Numa Numa, features a New Jersey teenager, Gary Brolsma, 19, lip-synching to a Romanian pop song. It has been seen 700 million times. He has since accepted an offer to appear in a TV advert for Bluetooth iPod headphones.

The top ten includes explicit footage of a Paris Hilton sex romp which was forwarded 400 million times.

An advert for John West Salmon, in which a fisherman performs kung-fu moves on a bear has been watched 300 million times.