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The British spend 240 million hours watching videos each month, via 785 million visits to online video sites, according to recent research by competitive intelligence service Experian Hitwise.

The Online Video: Bringing Social Media to Life report found that the number of visits to online video sites is increasing at a rate of 36 per cent year-on-year. YouTube is largely responsible for this, dominating the market with 70 per cent of all visits to online video sites.

The British spend 184 million hours watching YouTube videos each month, which adds up to more than 21,000 years of viewing time. On average, a single session lasts 20 minutes.

On demand services from BBC iPlayer and ITV Player came in second and third place respectively.

James Murray, marketing research analyst at Experian Hitwise, said: 'There are now more visits to video websites every month than to email providers, travel or sports sites, which represents a huge opportunity to the savvy marketer. The average user will make 18 visits to video sites a month and almost half will visit at least three different sites. While YouTube dominates the market, the increase in traffic to video-on-demand and more niche sites demonstrates that content is what matters most to today's Internet users and they'll go to whatever site has the content they're most interested in viewing.'

The research revealed that music, television, films and gaming were the top four search topics that drive consumers to video sites. Music accounts for a third of clicks, and the majority of users are searching for music videos. Almost a fifth of clicks were for television-related search topics. Eastenders, Britain's Got Talent and X Factor topped the list. The top search topic for online gamers were  trailers for new games.

Murray said: 'As people consume more video content online, brands should increasingly be looking to use video as a core part of their digital strategy. Online video is a very diverse media that can be used to build brand awareness, to bring traffic to a website, as an educational tool to demonstrate a product or service, as a customer service channel, or as a way to attract a completely new online audience.'

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