Web video slowly creeps up on TV in Europe

More than one in four Europeans regularly watches online video on sites such as Google's YouTube but the medium has a long way to go to catch up with regular TV, according to internet research firm Jupiter.

In a report, Jupiter said 28 per cent of Europeans watched online video at least once a month, mainly short clips but also full-length video via services like the BBC iPlayer or France's M6 Replay.

Although time spent by Europeans watching online video rose 50 per cent from 2006 to last year, it still accounted for just 0.9 hours per week of viewing on average last year, compared with 13.2 hours spent watching television. Jupiter warned traditional broadcasters to find ways to deliver programmes to their audience online or risk losing them to pirate sites, despite the fact that generating revenue through online video ads is still in early development.

"Models to monetise online video content are still emerging, but the audience is already there, and growing rapidly," David Schatsky, president of JupiterResearch said in the report. Jupiter gathers its information from thousands of interviews face-to-face and by phone every week.