Last year, watching online videos, downloading television programmes and making phone calls online saw the largest year-on-year increase among adult Internet users in the United States, Mediamark Research & Intelligence research has found.

Although just 3.2 percent of adults said they downloaded a TV show in the last 30 days, that is a 141.4 percent increase over 2007.

Meanwhile, 35.4 percent of U.S. adults said they watched a video online, and 4 percent said they made a phone call online, according to MRI's Survey of the American Consumer.

However, e-mail (74.2 percent), reading/viewing news reports (46 percent) and paying bills (39.6 percent) are still the most common activities for adults ages 18 and older, the report stated, according to MediaPost.