New research from comScore and Media Contacts concludes that the heaviest Internet video viewers (top 20 percent) averaged 841 minutes of online video viewing per month, while the moderate viewers (next 30 percent) and light viewers (bottom 50 percent) averaged just 77 minutes and 6 minutes, respectively.

The research was designed to understand the consumption habits and mindsets of Internet video users as they relate to online video and TV, as well as advertising and content across both mediums.

"The difference in consumption levels was astounding," said Jarvis Mak, VP of research and insight at Media Contacts. "The usage differences are reminiscent of the early days of the Internet. However, the networks' online distribution of first-run content will go a long way to bridging the gaps between heavy, moderate and light viewers."

YouTube is the common thread among the three viewer segments – it is the top video site for all three and reaches the most overall video viewers (54 percent).

The heavy video viewers watched mostly niche video-sharing sites, with each site reaching less than 1 percent of the total U.S. Web population.

The moderate viewers tended to view specific video content on broadcast TV sites – including WorldNow (ABC), CBS TV Local, ABC Daytime, Scripps TV and CMT – rather than frequenting more general video-sharing sites.

And the light viewers were found to actually be heavier TV consumers than the heavy viewers, with 46 percent of light viewers indicating that they watched more than 13 hours of TV per week, compared with just 39 percent of moderate video viewers and 30 percent of heavy video viewers who watched the same amount of TV.