A significant proportion of those watching popular comedy shows are doing so online through broadband video players such as the BBC's iPlayer, a new report has highlighted.

Jason Deans of the Guardian has pointed to figures which showed 40 per cent of those who watched the hit comedy series, The Mighty Boosh, did so online.

He said: "Amid all the hand wringing in recent years about comedy disappearing from TV - well the mainstream channels, anyhow - are we overlooking a flippin' great resurgence for the genre through the medium of online video?"

A recent report on 'Broadband Video and Internet TV' from ABI Research has found that the upsurge in the amount of quality video content on the internet as a result of broadband "has created monumental shifts in attitudes over the past year about whether online video will be a viable and growing market for monetization of video assets".

The potential growth of Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) is seen to be enormous, with a Datamonitor survey forecasting that within two years 60 per cent of all European households will have broadband.