The strong growth of mobile and tablet video viewing will pose a significant threat to traditional TV viewing in future, according to an industry expert.
Speaking at the annual IDG Mobile Breakfast Seminar on Thursday, IDG’s director of mobile strategy, Christina Carstensen, said that although TV remains strong, in future it will have a real “battle on its hands” as consumer behaviour becomes increasingly “omni-channel”.
“TV is struggling for the eyeballs already,” Cartensen told Newsline. “More and more people are streaming things like box sets and digital video. You certainly don’t watch advertising on TV if you can avoid it – you fast forward if you can or you go to your other device.”
Research from IDG’s Global Solutions report, conducted among 23,500 people across 43 countries, revealed that 87% of tablet owners use their device while watching TV and 80% of smartphone owners do the same, with 82% saying that the activities they do on other devices are generally unrelated.
Currently 75% of consumers use a smartphone to watch online videos, compared with 61% in 2012. Carstensen forecasts this number to reach 100% within the next five years.
“I think we will eventually become omni-channel,” she said. “Things will be seamless; we’ll be able to slide from one channel to another – start a video on one device and watch the rest on another.”
However, despite the growth in both mobile and tablet video viewing, Carstensen concedes that the threat to viewing solely on a traditional TV set is still some way off.
IDG’s research revealed that just 14% of respondents said that the tablet has replaced traditional TV viewing, with the figure even lower for smartphone users at 9%.
“There is a threat – but when you look at the numbers there is a long way to go, so the majority of mainstream brands will still spend on TV and think they can reach most people [through that medium],” she added.
Commenting on the impact that an omni-channel future might have on traditional broad-reach TV advertising, Carstensen said that while it will be disruptive, there will be new opportunities for advertisers when they can show pre-roll ads on connected devices before video starts.
“So TV adveritisers won’t necessarily lose out, but will have a different way of buying and placing the advertising,” she said.
This article was amended at 11.20 to say that 87% of tablet owners use their device while watching TV, rather than 87% of people use their tablet while watching TV.
