More than half (54 percent) of all U.S. Internet users have watched or downloaded a video clip or full-length program from the Web, according to a newly released AP-AOL Video survey of 1,347 online users. Some other key findings:
- Nearly three-quarters (71 percent) of online video users would prefer to watch an ad before a video in order to watch the video for free, while 23 percent say they’d rather pay for ad-free videos.
- More than two-thirds (69 percent) of online video viewers say they find videos they want to watch by browsing the Web. Meanwhile, 61 percent hear about videos from friends and 58 percent regularly visit a roster of favorite video sites. Thirty-seven percent use search engines to find videos and 36 percent learn about videos from magazines or TV.
- Those with a high-speed Internet connection are more likely than dial-up access users to watch video online (46 percent vs. 22 percent).
- Men (48 percent vs. 32 percent of women), adults ages 18-34 (48 percent) and urbanites (46 percent) are most likely to watch video online at least once a week.
- Women over age 45 are more likely to watch more video today than they were one year ago as compared to men of the same age (32 percent vs. 20 percent). At the same time, online video users under age 35 are more likely to watch more video today than those over age 35 (38 percent vs. 28 percent).
- More than half (54 percent) of online video viewers prefer to watch their videos on their computer monitor, while 37 percent say they would rather watch online videos on a television connected to their computer.
- Nearly ten percent (7 percent) of online video users prefer to watch videos on a portable device, such as a PDA or mp3 player. Fully 13 percent of adults ages 18-29 favor watching videos on a portable device, more than any other age category.
- One in ten online video users say that now that they can watch video online, they watch less television. Eighty-seven percent of online video viewers say their television viewing habits remain unchanged by the proliferation of online video.
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