CYBERSPACE — Consumption of video on adult websites peaks on Sunday mornings, according to statistics released by a video-on-demand website and internet analysis firm Hitwise.According to British VOD site FilmOn, 11:16 am GMT (3:16 am PT in the U.S.) on Sunday is “prime time” for the site’s “naughty movies” section. Hitwise statistics indicated a similar phenomenon, although Hitwise analysts said activity at traditional adult sites dips at the same time.

In contrast, “family viewing” films peak on Wednesdays, and sports-related content spikes on Saturdays — by as much as 50-percent across all sports-related categories, according to Hitwise.

“The data applies to both men and women, and it certainly poses the question about what has happened to the traditional ‘day of rest’ in Great Britain,” FilmOn founder Alki David told BBC News.

He added that in January, the site experienced higher-than-normal adult-content interest.

“It may have to do with the winter and the oncoming depression,” he said. “Cheap entertainment seems to be faring quite well right now, and adult content is the most extreme distraction of all.”

Both David and Hitwise Research Director Robin Goad postulated that a rise in social-networking site use on Sunday could be related to the popularity of adult content and its increasing acceptance in mainstream society.

“It seems that some of the less extreme content that can be found in the ‘adult’ category may have moved to social sites,” Goad told the BBC.

In fact, he added, although some have suggested social-networking sites may cut into the popularity of adult websites, he doesn’t expect that to be the case in any significant way.

“Adult entertainment is always at the forefront of technological advances on the internet; that’s just fact,” Goad told the BBC. “The reason that has been the case is because, as humans, we’re instinctively drawn to that type of behavior. I don’t think there’s anything particularly unusual in that in human terms. If anything, it sheds light on our true primal instincts.”