The market for online video advertising will begin to even out next year, new research has suggested.

A study by eMarketer found that next year an average of 13c (7p) per hour will be spend on web-based video marketing, compared to 12c per hour on television marketing.

This is in contrast to figures from this year - when 17c per hour was being spent - and 2008, when average expenditure was 21c per hour.

"By 2010, the difference between Internet video's and TV's spend per hour will start to even off - which indicates a potential tipping point for online video advertising," analyst David Hallerman told the news source.

He added that convergence between the two mediums needs to be reached before internet video's growth can accelerate at a faster rate.

However, figures from eMarketer suggest that the sector will still increase in the coming years, with investment set to quadruple from more than $1 billion per year to over $4 billion.

Earlier this month, Google revealed that it intends to purchase On2, a company that develops video compression technology for use online.

The search engine expects to complete the purchase in the fourth quarter of the year.