Mumbai, Jul 30 (IANS): Number of online video users in smaller towns grew 40 per cent last year against 25 per cent growth in urban India over the last one year, a new report said on Thursday.

Total online video users count rose to 294 million in December 2019, according to the ICUBE report by Kantar, a data, insights and consulting company.

The results suggest that online video consumption is driving Internet adoption in smaller towns – with a population below five lakh.

Music and movies are the two most-watched online video content in urban India, the data showed.

"The one line verdict on digital entertainment for the year is that of uninterrupted growth. There is good news, for both platforms and marketers," Biswapriya Bhattacharjee, Executive Vice President, Insights Division, Kantar, said in a statement.

"The digital medium is way younger than its offline counterparts but we already see a very discerning audience base. The concept of specialisation is already in place and the platform allows the content creators to bring out their creative best on this platform."

Contrary to the popular myth, online video consumption is no longer a young people phenomenon.

The growth of online video users in urban India is highest among 45 and above years age group, the data showed.

Not only the number of people watching videos has witnessed a surge, but they are doing it on a more frequent basis as the results showed that 65 per cent of online video watchers consume video online daily.

The proportion of 45 and above years age group people watching online video is higher among smaller cities than metros and large cities.

The proportion of female online video viewers is higher than males among the less than 15 years old age group, said the study.

With affordable Internet and a wide range of curated content, the on-demand video has seen significant growth over the last one year.

While subscription video on demand (SVOD) content has witnessed a significant surge over the last one year with users growing to the tune of 82 per cent over the last one year, advertising-based video on demand (AVOD) has also marked 29 per cent growth in users.

The growth of social media video users has been slower compared to AVOD or SVOD growth rate.

There is an increase in the number of social media video viewers by 18 per cent, said the report, adding that the proportion of video users accessing social media video has dropped over the last one year.