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According to Nielsen, the growth in online video over the past six months has been significant with the time spent viewing online video by the overall Internet audience growing by 16% in just six months (from November 2008 to April 2009). Even more interesting is the online viewing behavior by smaller demographic segments within that overall audience.  For example, the growth in online video viewing among men is much faster than among women (19% growth for men and 12% growth for women).  This is not surprising since men traditionally are known to watch more online video than women. However, Nielsen did report a growth rate that might surprise you.  While you might think that the growth rate in online video viewing among young people would eclipse that of the older demographic, the opposite is true.  Yes, people in the 18-24 year old demographic segment watch the most online video, followed by the 25-34 year old segment, but older demographics are starting to shift their online habits to include more and more online video. The 6-month growth in online video viewing among the 35-49 year old age range was 29% -- nearly twice as high as the growth rate among the 18-24 and 25-34 age ranges combined.  Furthermore, the growth rate in online video viewing in the 65+ age range was an astounding 21% -- the second highest growth rate of all segments.  It seems online video is not just for teenagers anymore.You can see all the 6-month growth details from the Nielsen study in the chart below:

nielsen_online_video_growth

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