• by Wayne Friedman , September 20, 2018

A second-quarter 2018 report from Comcast’s FreeWheel unit -- its video management business-- said OTT platforms comprise 41% of all digital video advertising views,  -- the highest for all digital video platforms. These views are up 54% year-over-year.

Nearly half of these OTT advertising views are live, with 49% coming from on-demand full TV episodes and 3% from short-form clips.

Adding in TV set-top-box video on-demand views boosts this number to 57%. Set-top-box ad views are up 15%, and now command a 16% share.

Video ad views on smartphones have seen the most rapid rise -- up 76% over a year ago to a 19% share. Desktop video ad views are at a 17% share -- 14% higher. Tablet video ad views are at 7% share, up 16%.

FreeWheel says 14% of total ad views in the second quarter were placed through programmatic video ad deals -- up 58% versus a year ago.

Overall, live advertising views have nearly doubled -- up 90% over a year ago -- resulting in a 33% share in the U.S.