In their latest Cross Platform Report, they found that simply isn’t the case anymore.

A subset of consumers from television and Internet homes has now emerged that defies that notion, with the lightest traditional television users streaming significantly more Internet video, and the heaviest streamers under-indexing for traditional TV viewership.

This behavior is led by those ages 18-34. The group of consumers exhibiting this behavior is significant but small. More than a third of the TV/Internet population is not streaming, whereas less than 1% are not watching TV.

This means that nowadays, if you are heavy into streaming, you most likely aren’t turning on the cable. Here’s a visual demonstration of this:

And the next graph shows that the tendency is more pronounced in people aged 18-34. Makes sense, since that is the generation that has grown up on Netflix and YouTube.

This is interesting news, and unsettling news I’m sure for TV executives and cable providers. Among a set of people (the heavy online video connoisseurs), albeit a small set, they are satisfying themselves almost exclusively with streaming video. Is it only a matter of time until it is not just the heavy internet users who are watching traditional TV less and less?

As of right now, however, it looks like Americans simply love any type of video you put in their faces. According to Nielsen, overall TV watching increased 22 minutes per person per month year-over-year. Nine out of ten households with TVs have cable service. DVR usage continues to grow and even mobile video has increased 41% year-over-year.

Will internet video ever completely knock the crown off Television? Let us know what you think.

The U.K. and Italy each have 2.7 million mobile video consumers, up 75 percent from July 2009 in the U.K. market and up 55 percent in the Italian market. Spain has the fastest growth, with mobile video consumption up 90 percent in the past year to 1.7 million subscribers.

On demand video/TV programming saw significant growth in the past year, up 99 percent since July 2009, with 5.2 million mobile users across Europe. Viewing broadcast TV is also increasing, up 70 percent to 3.5 million subscribers.

“The era of ‘video-on-the-go’ has finally arrived,” says comScore European VP Mobile, Jeremy Copp. “We’ve seen major developments throughout the mobile space – in networks, in devices and in software and applications – and now we’re seeing the result: a rapidly growing audience of consumers accessing video on their mobiles, be it broadcast, on-demand or sideloaded.”

In the EU5 countries, two out of every three people who viewed mobile video were smartphone owners. In the U.K. 80.2 percent  were smartphone owners to lead all EU5 countires, followed by Spain (71.7 %) and France (67.7%).

“Smartphone owners are clearly driving the mobile video trend, an indication that more growth is on the horizon as an increasing number of smartphones hit the market,” said Copp. 

“We’ve also seen that recent releases such as Apple’s iPad and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab are designed to offer an incredible video experience, and when coupled with services such as the BBC iPlayer for mobile, make this an extremely interesting sector to watch.”

"We believe that video will help to drive further Twitter adoption because it dramatically enriches the Twitter experience," says Mo Adham, Co-Founder of TwitVid.com. "Now people are not just restricted to experiencing the Twitter universe from the 140 character view, they can see and more deeply communicate what’s happening in their social circle and beyond."

To tweet videos from the Blackberry, users simply need to:

1. Download the app
2. Open the app
3. Select or record a video
4. Type a tweet
5. Click post and let your video upload

At that point, people can start watching it within seconds. That’s pretty much real-time video from your blackberry.

TwitVid also announced that it will power video for UberTwitter, the most popular Blackberry Twitter app. "Being first out the gate with a standalone video app for the Blackberry and supplying video tweeting to an incredible app like UberTwitter means our users get the best Twitter experience available anywhere," says Adham.

"We chose TwitVid.com for UberTwitter, because we wanted to give our users the fastest, easiest and most reliable way to tweet video,” said Paul McDonald, Founder of UberTwitter.  "The TwitVid.com Developer’s Kit made it extremely easy for us to integrate video into our app.  I know our users are going to love the way TwitVid makes tweeting video on UberTwitter really easy and fun."

TwitVid launched its iPhone 3GS app in July, and also offers the ability to tweet videos through email from mobile devices or through TwitVid.com. TwitVid also comes equipped with sharing capabilities for Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube. TwitVid for Blackberry is available for download at BlackBerry App World.

In its fourth quarter "A2/M2 Three Screen Report," Nielsen found that the average American watches 151 hours of TV per month, an all-time high. Americans who watch video over the Internet consume  another 3 hours of online video per month and those who use mobile video watch nearly 4 hours per month on mobile phones and other devices.

The report found that digital video recorded (DVR) and other timeshifted television is watched at twice the rate as online video at 7 hours, 11 minutes per month. A potential indicator of how audiences could timeshift in the future, young adults (age 18-24) watch video online and on a DVR at the same rate of about 5 hours per month.

"The American fascination with television and other video content is not easing up, as consumers keep turning to TV, Internet and Mobile at record levels," said Susan Whiting, vice chair of The Nielsen Company.

"Viewers appear to be choosing the best screen available for their video consumption, weighing a variety of factors, including convenience, quality and access. It is clear that TV remains the main vehicle for viewing video, although online and mobile platforms are an increasingly important complement to live home-based television."

Men continue to watch more mobile video than women, and women continue to watch video on the Internet and television more than men.

Weekdays outpace weekends for online video viewing with 65 percent of online video viewed between 9am-5pm Monday through Friday, compared to 51 percent of online video watched between 6am-8pm on weekends.

Nielsen 4Q08 figures show that mobile video has grown, up to 11 million Americans, an increase of 9 percent over the previous quarter. Much of the growth is due to increased mobile content and the rise of the mobile Web as a viewing option.

"Americans keep finding more time to spend with the three screens," said Susan Whiting, vice chairperson for The Nielsen Company. "TV use is at an all-time high, yet people are also using the Internet more often — 31% of which is happening simultaneously."

People who report timeshifting activity spend 6 hours, 32 minutes per month watching timeshifted TV, which is more than double the amount of time they watch online at 2 hours, 31 min per month.

Men are more likely than women to watch video on mobile phones, while women are more likely than men to watch video on the Internet.

In the third quarter there was plenty of online video content with events such as the Olympics, Major League baseball games, the political conventions and debates, and the financial crisis. Online video usage grew steadily in the third quarter.

Online audiences, including those using video will continue to grow.

The average monthly time spent viewing mobile video increased 11 percent, from 3 hours, 15 minutes, 3 hours, 37 minutes between 2Q 2008 and the 3Q.

"Our numbers show that TV remains the dominant choice for most Americans, yet timeshifting as well as videos on the Internet and on mobile phones, continue to be the trends to watch," said Whiting.

Sales of video phones will increase to around $125 billion by 2010 from close to $58 billion last year. The number of video subscribers is projected to increase from just a few million last year to 58.6 million in 2010.

"Despite some concerns around the business plan and subscriber take rates, major service providers continue to move forward with their mobile video network rollouts. They’re taking advantage of spectrum availability, thanks to the switch-off of analog TV broadcasting networks, and the pressure to get services rolled out before next year’s Summer Olympics in Beijing and the European Soccer Championship," said Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for broadband and IPTV at Infonetics.

Heynen pointed out that governments are quick to support mobile video technologies to help with deployment. He noted that the EU endorses DVD-H and the Chinese Sponsor CMMB. CMMB stands for China Mobile Multimedia Broadcasting. Infonetics estimates that there will be 11.7 million DVB-H subscribers by 2010.

The report also found that global service provider revenue from mobile vide services will triple between last year and this year, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 135% through 2010.

North America lags behind other ares of the world when it comes to embracing mobile video. Europe, the Middle East and Africa were all the top regions when it comes to mobile video service revenue with 42 percent of the global total. Asia-Pacific trailed with 35 % and North America only accounted for 16 % of the total global revenue.

Nielsen’s NPM panel, currently consists of about 12,000 U.S. households and 35,000 people, it will increase to 37,000 homes and 100,000 people as the company completes the introduction of Local People Meters (LPM) into 56 local U.S. markets.

The larger sample size will help Nielsen to accomplish its objectives of its Anytime Anywhere Media Measurement (A2/M2) initiative, which focuses on measuring online video and video on hand-held devices.

"This also has implications for Nielsen’s A2/M2 initiatives, all of which are built around the concept of ‘following the video,’ wherever it migrates," said Scott Springer, Product Leader of Audience Measurement for The Nielsen Company’s Media Segment.

"Our plans for out-of-home viewing, streaming video on the Internet, and ‘third screen’ devices such as cell phones and hand-held video players, are based on integrating these
measurements with traditional television measurement. This much larger national sample creates the necessary foundation for an integrated measurement approach."

That is a combined annual growth rate of 74 percent.

"The Web 2.0 phenomena and sites that allow posting of mobile video will increase demand for mobile video services," said Dan Shey, a principal analyst at ABI.

"However, global demand inhibitors include income levels, messaging and video viewing alternatives, and handset capabilities."

ABI projects that industrialized regions of North America, Western Europe and Asia Pacific will account for 90 percent of the video services revenues.

Developing regions also have room for growth,

"The biggest opportunity for carriers in developing world countries is with video messaging services," Mr. Shey said.

"With more people migrating and immigrating to find work, video messaging can be the service that provides a rich form of communication for social and familial connectivity."

The survey found that faster than anticipated growth will lead to increased capital spending in the second half of this year, as service providers converge their wireless and wireline networks and launch advanced video services.

Over 54 percent of telecommunications professionals say mobile video is driving growth now or will within one year. Additionally 78 percent say that IPTV will drive growth within three years.

Nearly all respondents (96%) believe service providers will increase infrastructure spending in the second half of 2007. Fifty-one percent see the convergence of wireless and wireline networks taking place within two years.

"The survey confirms that users are driving the release of new video services such as mobile video and IPTV, and service providers will invest to meet that demand," said Steve McCarthy, Tellabs executive vice president, global sales and service.

"Tellabs solutions enable service providers to rapidly gear up for demand and to meet users’ high expectations for video services."

The survey was from 678 telecom professionals and tracked views on emerging market trends, industry outlook and convergence issues.