Online video viewing rockets in the UK

YouTube - still the biggest player by far in online videos
YouTube - still the biggest player by far in online videos

The watching of online video a has increased by more than third in the past year, but despite the power of the BBC iPlayer, YouTube remains market leader by an astonishing amount.

ComScore's latest figures show a big increase in the consumption of online videos – with 5.5 billion views, up from just over 4 billion in the 2009 figures.

The iPlayer has become hugely important – as shown by a 143 per cent increase in the number of videos viewed

YouTube dominant

But the Google video sites – including YouTube – accounts for 2.47 billion of the total, significantly more than half of all video viewed.

Some may find it surprising that the third most watched video site in the UK is megavideo.com, which has more than doubled in video viewed in the past year, ahead of Facebook's video player in fourth and Microsoft video sites in fifth.

Facebook's video player experienced the biggest change – putting on a 205 per cent growth spurt from last year, whilst Microsoft's video sites – including MSN Video – grew the least – just 12 per cent.

Other major growth spurts came from Blinkx (204 per cent), ITV's video players (134 per cent) and Sky Player (139 per cent).

It is clear that the rise of video on demand, as well as people's acceptance of online as a viewing platform, is making a huge difference to the television marketplace.

Patrick Goss

Patrick Goss is the ex-Editor in Chief of TechRadar. Patrick was a passionate and experienced journalist, and he has been lucky enough to work on some of the finest online properties on the planet, building audiences everywhere and establishing himself at the forefront of digital content.  After a long stint as the boss at TechRadar, Patrick has now moved on to a role with Apple, where he is the Managing Editor for the App Store in the UK.