Most mobile-TV viewing occurs in the home
June 4, 2013
The majority of mobile TV viewing occasions – 82 per cent of tablet and 64 per cent of smartphone – occurs in the home, according to a study by market research firm Chadwick Martin Bailey. Additionally, the primary driver for consumers watching video on mobile devices is convenience – not to avoid advertising.
The study encompassed nearly 6,000 participants and more than 393,000 TV viewing occasions, and included a quantitative phase, exploring video-user demographics, as well as a qualitative phase exploring users’ motivations and behaviours via in-home interviews in three US markets – Atlanta, Phoenix and Kansas City.
Additional findings from the study include:
– Drama (31 per cent of tablet viewing occasions, 27 per cent of smartphone occasions) and comedies (20 per cent of tablet occasions, 24 per cent of smartphone occasions) lead among programme genres viewed on mobile devices. By contrast, news leads among TV-set viewing; 31 per cent of TV-set viewing occasions were for news compared to 11 per cent and 15 per cent for tablets and smartphones, respectively;
– Convenience and multi-episode “binging” drive mobile viewing, while ad avoidance is not a primary motivator. Forty-nine per cent of participants cited “more convenient” as their top reason for viewing video on a mobile device; 13 per cent cited “watch multiple episodes”; only 5 per cent cited “fewer ads”;
– Content availability often drives device selection (e.g., certain programmes or episodes may only be available to a consumer via mobile device);
– Participants in multi-person households confirmed that mobile devices let people watch different shows at the same time (e.g., one person watching the television, another watching separate programming on a tablet);
– Mobile TV viewers are more focused than TV set viewers (e.g., less unrelated multi-tasking, more programme-related second screen activity).
“While mobile-video consumption remains a small minority of total television consumption, nearly 41 million Americans today are watching video on mobile devices, according to Nielsen – and that is impacting overall TV consumption,” Laura Cowan, research director at LIN Media said. “Media companies need to understand not only the methodologies for measuring video consumption on mobile devices, but also the impact of mobile viewing on television consumption overall – information which is crucial for planning relative to content development and advertising. We believe this study has helped move us closer toward that understanding.”
“Today’s mobile devices are having a screen multiplier effect within households, leading to an increase in overall TV consumption and creating more opportunities for individuals to watch exactly what they want, whenever they want, at a location of their choosing. They are not replacing television sets, but they are impacting TV viewing habits in a way that is too fundamental for anyone in the media and advertising industries to ignore,” Chris Neal, a VP at Chadwick Martin Bailey added.