Average Internet user now streams 2.5 hours of online video per month

Reston (VA) - Around 75% of Web surfers watched online video during the month of May, each taking in an average of over two hours.

According to Comscore’s latest Video Metrix report, around 132 million people streamed video over an Internet connection in May. That includes 74.3% of all US Internet users, says Comscore.

In total, more than 8.3 billion video streams were created during the month. The average video was about 2.5 minutes. On average, each online video viewer called up more than two streams per day.

Google was by far the leader, with Google Video and YouTube as part of its arsenal. Google sites accounted for 21.5% of all video streams, or nearly 1.8 billion during May.

Fox Interactive Media, which owns Myspace, was in second place with 8.1% of all streaming video. At third place, Yahoo took 4.6%. Viacom, Time Warner, and Microsoft were #4, #5, and #6, respectively, each with around 2% - 3% of the streaming video market.

In terms of unique user penetration, Google and Fox were much closer. About 49.2% of online video streamers used YouTube in May, compared to 40.0% for Fox/Myspace. Yahoo reached 26.6% of online viewers and Time Warner ranked in at 22.3%.

Among Internet video streamers, the average amount of video watched per user was 158 minutes, more than 2.5 hours.