US online video viewing still rising

New figures have revealed that online video is still growing in popularity among US web users.

The statistics from comScore show that almost 178 million people watched rich media content in December last year, representing 86.5 per cent of the overall US web audience.

Some 33.2 billion clips were watched in total, with YouTube continuing to be the most popular source for online video.

The Google-owned website attracted 134.4 million viewers, who took in over 13 billion videos between them.

Other top online video sites included Hulu and properties owned by Microsoft.

According to analysts at Barclays, video and standard display ads on YouTube are expected to account for most of Google's display ad revenues - about $700 million (£448.4 million) - in 2010, BusinessWeek reports.

The video-sharing website recently launched an initiative to generate revenues through online content rentals - including films - after a test scheme involving movies from the Sundance festival.

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