Mobile Video Surges, Sports Drives Growth

• by Wayne Friedman , December 13, 2017

Mobile video usage continues to rapidly grow, and is expected to represent 60% of all online video next year. Sports content is a major driver.

An Ooyala study says third-quarter mobile video starts grew nearly 12% versus the same time period in the prior year, to reach a 58.3% share of all online video -- up from a 52.1% share in the third quarter of 2016.

Sports is a major video content component for mobile -- accounting for nearly 63% of all third-quarter sports-video plays, with viewing on smartphones above 50% and tablets at 12%.

PCs see 35% of plays and connected TVs less than 3%.

Pre-roll video advertising impressions for broadcasters on online platforms were 39% for the smartphones, 41% for the PC, 13% for tablets, and 6% for connected TV. For non-broadcast-based publishers, 37% came from the smartphone; 52% from PCs, and 10% from tablets.

When it comes to mid-roll video ad impressions, PCs took a bigger share than smartphones.

For broadcasters, PCs were at a 46% share versus 22% for connected TV devices, and 16% each for tablets and smartphones. For other publishers, PCs were at 54%, 44% for smartphones, and 2% for tablets.

Among smartphones, tablets and connected TVs, all long-form content time watched exceeded 50% for the third consecutive quarter. Long-form time watched was up nearly 77% for smartphones from a year ago, and up nearly 70% for tablets.