• by Wayne Friedman , June 9, 2010

U.S. Internet video users will continue to climb -- albeit slowly -- in the next two to three years, at around 8% to 9%. And more of their viewing is coming from longer premium TV and movie content. 

According to Internet researcher eMarketer, by 2014, 77% of all U.S. Internet users -- 193.1 million -- will be watching some video content monthly. This is up from 67% of all U.S. users, or 147.5 million.

Looking at October 2009, eMarketer said 20% of its respondents streamed at least one movie, while 13% downloaded a film. This calculation was up from six months before, when 14% of respondents streamed a movie, with 7% downloading a film.

The credit goes to the continued gains made by premium TV provider Hulu, which is second only to YouTube in overall video streams. Another strong factor is the increase in Internet-capable TV sets that allow viewers to screen video in a so-called "lean-back" environment.

Demographics of online viewers are growing across the board, with young viewers still leading the way. eMarketer says the biggest users are 18-24 viewers. But 25-34 viewers and teens are not far behind.

The online video research quotes data that says 29% of all viewers under 25 get most -- if not all -- of their video online, versus 8% for the entire TV/video population.