According to this Nielsen report, U.S online video consumption is on the rise, but even more notably, women between the ages of 25-44 – both stay-at-home moms and working women – like to spend more time watching clips, videos and TV shows online than one would think.

“Four key themes stood out:

• Streaming among women is governed in large part by life stage and daily to-do lists, rather than age or employment status.
• Digital mindsets change over the course of the day and vary according to time, mood, location and “available mindshare.”
• The value of video as “social currency” is on the rise, leading some women to largely favor links suggested by friends.

Nielsen worked with the Today Show to product these statistics, as 35 women participated in their study.  Its results summed up in the quote above provide more than just interesting data, as this study looks at female online video viewing from a specific brand’s view of the happenings, providing rather limited information on this area as a whole. Nonetheless, it does offer a unique overlook at a broadcaster’s online video expectations, particularly in light of women’s growing influence in online commerce, especially in the mobile sector.

Women are also beginning to seriously influence online retail, covered here, as online video is expected to be a substantial money-maker for advertisers, exceeding other online ad categories such as mobile, banner and wallpaper ads by 25%.

According to the latest comScore report, 5.5 billion online video views occurred in the U.S during October, attributed to 175 million U.S internet users.