U.S. Online Video Use Up 45 Percent, Year-Over-Year

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U.S. users spent almost 45 percent more time viewing online video in January 2011 than they did during the same period in 2010, according to data from The Nielsen Company.

According to estimates by the measurement firm, the total number of videos streamed and average streams per viewer also increased considerably in that time, growing by 31.5 percent and 27.5 percent, respectively. The number of unique viewers watching online video increased at a much slower rate, however, growing by 3.1 percent, year-over-year.

Subscription-based movie and TV streaming service Netflix captured the greatest portion of users' attention in January, with users watching an average of more than 11 minutes of video each. Chinese video site Tudou was the second most watched among U.S. viewers, and ad-supported Hulu was third, attracting an average of 5:35 minutes per viewer.

Though it leads the market in terms of unique viewers and total streams, Google-owned YouTube accounted for an average of 2:23 minutes in time spent per viewer.