Internet monitoring firm Hitwise said traffic to video sites increased by 178 per cent between February 2007 and February 2008, with YouTube the number one destination for surfers in the UK.

However, the BBC has also experienced huge volumes of traffic to its catch-up TV streaming service which lets viewers in the UK watch programes for up to a week after they have been screened.

Since the iPlayer launched last December traffic has grown by 423 per cent making it the 50th most visited website in the UK overall.

YouTube ranks as the most popular video site in the UK and the eighth most visited website overall.

Robin Goad, Director of Research at Hitwise, attributed the site's unrelenting popularity to the strength of its brand.

Commenting on the growing trend among surfers to watch more video content online, Goad said: "Online video is growing rapidly in the UK and the primary driver for this is the increasing penetration of fast broadband connections in the UK."

"The sheer volume of compelling content out there is clearly helping to accelerate this trend," he added.

One in every 40 searches in the UK during February 2008 resulted in a visit to a video site, up from one in every 117 last February.

Other video sites included in the top 10 most popular video sites in the UK were My SpaceTV, Google Video, and Daily Motion.

www.youtube.com
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer
www.video.google.com
www.hitwise.com

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