I can haz Caturday?

The top 5 categories of videos watched online are all short-form — comedy, music videos, videos shot and uploaded by consumers, news stories and movie previews — according to a Frank N. Magid Associates survey conducted for Metacafe (via MarketingCharts).

Moreover, 28 percent of those who watch online videos report watching less TV as a result, according to the national online survey of 2,000 people age 12-64. Among the other findings of the Metacafe survey:

• 50 percent of all respondents watch online video weekly.
• 11 percent of all respondents watch online video daily.
• 19 percent of those who watch online videos report regularly sharing a link to a video with someone else.
• The top-five most commonly viewed types of online video content, based on respondents reporting that they watch regularly, are as follows:
  • Comedy/jokes/bloopers (37 percent)
  • Music videos (36 percent)
  • Videos shot and uploaded by consumers (33 percent)
  • News stories (31 percent)
  • Movie previews (28 percent)

Another Magid survey found, however, that online streaming of television episodes is driving more audience to network TV. The Magid Media Labs survey of 50,000 users of the CBS Audience Network found that 35 percent of those viewing CBS episodes online (median age 38) said they were as a result more likely to watch CBS series on their TV.

"[N]early half of CBS's online audience is composed of viewers who only or mostly watch [episodes] online, which opens the door to a net gain of 21 percent of web-only viewers who are now more likely to watch TV because they connected with the show online," said Jaime Spencer, director of Magid Media Labs.

Meanwhile, according to Erick Hachenburg, CEO of Metacafe, "Short-form video is an emerging entertainment genre - distinct from online TV - that consistently proves popular with people of widely varying backgrounds and tastes, as demonstrated yet again by the Magid survey."

"Online video has quickly become not only a mainstream cultural phenomena but also a powerful marketing vehicle for brands that want to reach consumers who no longer watch as much television - and even fewer TV commercials," said Mike Vorhaus, managing director of Frank N. Magid Associates.

About the data: The national study for Metacafe was conducted by Frank N. Magid Associates online research division SurveysOnline.com; it surveyed nearly 2,000 people age 12-64, with gender, age and ethnicity representations matching those of the US census.