YouTube has announced the opening of regional portals in nine countries, including the UK.

The new portals will open in Brazil, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the UK. They will be translated into the local language where necessary, and highlight locally produced content.

YouTube said that it had always planned to start local portals, but that the takeover by Google had made it possible. Google has provided funding and engineering support.

The UK portal is expected to get heavy use after a new study found that UK users view more video online than any other European country.

Over 80 per cent of British internet users viewed a streaming video online in April 2007, compared to 76 per cent in the US, 79 per cent in France and 70 per cent in Germany.

"With eight out of 10 people initiating a stream in the UK it is clearly one of the more popular things to do online, up there with search, email and shopping," said Bob Ivins, managing director of comScore Europe, which carried out the research.

"What is striking is that those consumers are accessing 16 to 18 streams more per month than their counterparts in the US, France or Germany, perhaps indicating that the UK is further along the adoption curve in enjoying streamed video."

UK internet users spent approximately 10 per cent of their time online streaming video. The average Briton viewed 80 videos in April, compared to 64 in France, 62 in Germany and 65 in the US.