According to a report from the research company, Pew, a significant rise in number of US citizens watching or downloading online videos has been witnessed.

The telephonic survey conducted by Pew Internet and American Life Project, revealed that close to 70 per cent of Americans prefer to watch videos, TV shows, and films on the Internet.

This survey compares the data from 2007, which was done on similar grounds took information from people aged between 18 and 29 years.

It was noted that there has been a rise in case of online viewers compared to 2007.

According to the Associate Director for Research at Pew, Kristien Purcell, the rise is attributed to Facebook and Twitter, and video-sharing sites like You Tube.

There has been a 19 per cent increase in viewers of comedy online, and educational viewers have grown from 22 per cent to 38 per cent.

Also the report states that one in every seven internet users in the US upload video to the Internet which is double the figure recorded in 2007.