• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, September 26, 2024

Although premium video viewing perceptions keep changing, new research continues to show big-screen national TV network/streaming-based content has strong value  -- dramatically higher than for small-screen, short-form mobile phone content.

A Comcast FreeWheel study shows that 78% of viewers say national TV network content on national streaming platforms has higher quality, for all demographic groups from persons ages 16-24 (70% favorable) to persons ages 55-64 (85% favorable). 

While strong narrative and story construction help viewers to have a more “premium” video experience, a key determinant is also based on the amount of advertising surrounding that content.

FreeWheel says the quality for big-screen experiences is nearly four times that of mobile video content. 

The study examined two major popular video “scenarios”:

Mobile video with advertising breaks of five or more per hour and two or three ads per break was deemed to be of lesser quality compared to big-screen networks/streaming with just one to two breaks per hour, and two or three ads per break.

FreeWheel believes viewers are more likely to take action for brands that have messaging in a premium environment, where 58% are more likely to recall ads.

When U.S. respondents were asked where they would turn to for premium content, 43% said "national networks” and 18% said global streamers, while 12% cited video-sharing aggregators and 15% cited social media.

The most important factor for high quality, according to respondents, was ”content platform” at 23%, followed by content description at 20%. After this comes the type of “device” at 17%, followed by the number of ad breaks per break with 11%,  the number of breaks per hour  at 9% and content recency at 6%.

Freewheel analyzed 4,320 different “scenarios” from the 8,000 online interviews 16-64. Viewers were asked to pick from two scenarios which one they found to be higher quality.