According to a new AP-AOL Video survey, more than half (54 percent) of all U.S. Internet users have watched or downloaded a video clip or full-length program from the Web. The survey, which examined online video trends and usage habits among 1,347 online video users, further revealed that 32 percent of online video users say they watch more online video today than they did one year ago.

Nearly three-quarters (71 percent) of online video users would prefer to watch an ad before a video in order to watch the video for free, while 23 percent say they’d rather pay for ad-free videos. The videos most watched were 72 percent News,  59 percent Television or movie clips, 48 percent Music videos, 44 percent Sports highlights, 43 percent Amateur videos, 23  percent Concert highlights, 22 percent Full-length movies or TV shows, 17 percent Live sporting events, 17 percent Video podcasts and 9 percent Live concerts.

“There’s no question that online video usage is growing faster than most predicted, particularly as more diverse, appealing and high quality branded video content is being made available on the Web,” said Kevin Conroy, Executive Vice President of AOL. “As more and more Web users adopt broadband, demand for online video of all types, including news, music videos and concerts, TV and movies, sports highlights, and user generated video mash-ups will continue to grow at a very fast pace.”

More than two-thirds (69  percent) of online video viewers say they find videos they want to watch by browsing the Web. Meanwhile, 61 percent hear about videos from friends and 58 percent regularly visit a roster of favorite video sites. Thirty-seven percent use search engines to find videos and 36 percent learn about videos from magazines or TV.

Those with a high-speed Internet connection are more likely than dial-up access users to watch video online (46 percent vs. 22 percent). Men (48 percent vs. 32 percent of women), adults ages 18-34 (48 percent) and urbanites (46 percent) are most likely to watch video online at least once a week. Women over age 45 are more likely to watch more video today than they were one year ago as compared to men of the same age (32 percent vs. 20 percent).

At the same time, online video users under age 35 are more likely to watch more video today than those over age 35 (38 percent vs. 28 percent). More than half (54 percent) of online video viewers prefer to watch their videos on their computer monitor, while 37 percent say they would rather watch online videos on a television connected to their computer.

Nearly ten percent (7 percent) of online video users prefer to watch videos on a portable device, such as a PDA or mp3 player. Fully 13 percent of adults ages 18-29 favor watching videos on a portable device, more than any other age category. One in ten online video users say that now that they can watch video online, they watch less television.

Eighty-seven percent of online video viewers say their television viewing habits remain unchanged by the proliferation of online video.