Which means Viacom may have overreacted.

The study, conducted by Joel Waldfogel of The Wharton School, surveyed a few hundred University of Pennsylvania students – which makes it a good sample for Viacom’s market and a good start on the road to a larger, more definitive sample.

Overall, says Waldfogel, traditional weekly television viewing dropped when Web viewing was used as a substitute by about 25 minutes. However, time spent viewing television content on the Web accounts for four hours weekly, and time spent on network-controlled viewing (television plus network websites) increased by 1.5 hours.

It’s hard to make a case, then, according to this sample, that YouTube clips are damaging TV viewing. YouTubers are actually watching more TV, with more purpose. The clips stand as promotional vehicles to pique interest and even gain new viewers.

If so, this gives YouTube some nice fuel in court, especially if the study can be replicated on a larger scale.