The number of hours of video watched on smartphones weekly has increased to nearly three per broadband household, according to Parks Associates. That’s an increase of almost 55% from 2015, researchers said.
“In the video services market, change has come quickly, affecting all aspects of the ecosystem,” Brett Sappington, the Senior Director of Research at Parks Associates, said in a press release. “Beyond the increased consumption to on-demand viewing, consumer expectations for service features and experience continue to evolve. The journey consumers take in service selection and purchasing is also changing. At the same time, consolidation and the rise of new services produce a challenging competitive environment.”
Hours of Video Watched on Smartphones
The news is not as good for TV-based broadcast video. That form of viewership has dropped from more than 60% share of video viewed in early 2012 to 44% at the end of last year, researchers said.
The press release points out that the radical changes in video distribution have created a new market dynamic that includes the entire organization, including market and service delivery. The result is direct-to-consumer services from content organizations, innovative monetization approaches and online pay TV services.
The results about hours of video watched on smartphones were included in a white paper entitled, “Video’s Critical Path: Success at Web Speed” that was done by Parks Associates on behalf of MediaKind.
In June, Ooyala reported that the rate of increase of video consumption had stabilized. The growth was fueled primarily by long-form videos, which are defined of those of more than 20 minutes. The firm found that these were viewed to completion on smartphones 57% of the time. Ultra-long form videos of more than 40 minutes were viewed to completion 45% of the time.
While mobile video usage is growing, laptops are still very important, according to recent data from Comcast. Data on college student consumption of video, based on Comcast’s Xfinity on Campus business line, found that students prefer laptop viewing over mobile viewing, especially during prime time. Generally speaking, students will gravitate towards the biggest screen available to them, Comcast reports.
Image courtesy of flickr user Kirill Kniazev.
