Time spent watching streaming video on tablets and mobile increased 100% in 2012
A new report from analytics company Ooyala has documented the growing impact non-linear broadcasting platforms are having on viewing habits.
Measuring the viewing of almost 200 million unique viewers across 130 countries each month, the Global Video Index 2012 study revealed that people watched live video content on desktop PCs for an average of 18 times longer than video-on-demand, nine times longer on connected televisions, five times longer on tablets and four times longer on smartphones.
Time spent watching content on mobile and tablet devices increased by 100% in 2012.
Over 75% of smartphone users watched online video content on their devices up to 30 minutes long, with approximately 15% watching for periods over one hour, not far behind the 25% of people that watched online video content via traditional desktop computers.
More tablet users watched online audio-video content for periods of 30 minutes to over an hour than desktop users did, approximately 55% and 45%, respectively.
“As we look at the evolution of the video streaming industry, we think it will go through three phases: access, ease of use and ultimately quality,” said Bismarck Lepe, co-founder of Ooyala.
“The reality is that a lot of these new connected TV services give you more access to content than you would see on your traditional TV, but quality is not the first consideration.”
The Ooyala study further revealed the evolution of advertising, with online advertising becoming the fastest-growing category of advertising in 2012, with the US ad spend up 46% to $2.93 billion.
Lepe concluded by saying: “For us, the results of the Global Video Index are very exciting because we are helping to drive a lot of this transition from the traditional, over-the-top and connected cable world to a primarily OTT streaming world.
“I think much of these findings are a bit of a foregone conclusion, but we’re still unsure about when it will happen.”
Lepe predicts that Android will overtake the iOS platform on connected devices this year.