Doubling Down: Mobile Now Accounts For 8% Of Digital Video Viewing

Mobile-Video-TV-AThe share of overall digital video viewing time spent on smartphones and tablets doubled in 2012 -- hitting 8% by December, according to the full-year metrics just released by cross-platform video platform Ooyala. The explosion of tablet use is one of the key growth drivers, with video share on that platform up 110% and smartphone video viewing share up 87%.

Live streaming broadcasts remain the most engaging form of video for mobile users. Tablet owners, for instance, watched five times as much live video content as they did on-demand content in the fourth quarter of 2012, Ooyala finds. Likewise, mobile phone owners watched 4 times as much live video as they did VOD. “Live video has an immediacy and urgency that leads to longer viewing times across all devices,” the company says in its year-end report.

Long-form video is a favorite of tablet owners, with over 60% of time spent on video devoted to clips longer than 10 minutes -- even higher than desktop share of time spent with longer media. In fact, in Q4 2012, 32% of video time spent on tablets was with content formats running longer than one hour. Clearly the tablet is becoming an alternative TV screen. Between Q1 and Q4, 2012 time spent with long form video on tablets was up 37%.

Despite the clear dominance of Android smartphones in the marketplace, the typical iPhone user’s hunger for multimedia content continues to rule the day. iOS phones are responsible for 67% of the mobile time spent viewing video. 

Next story loading loading..