Ooyala: Mobile video consumption has stabilised

Mobile video consumption continues to rise but growth stabilised in Q1 2018; total video plays increased during the quarter just 1.8 per cent from the prior year, according to Ooyala’s Q1 2018 Global Video Index Report. The increase was one of the smallest in 14 quarters, and also marked the first quarter-over-quarter decline in mobile’s share of plays at nearly 4.6 per cent.

Nevertheless, consumption on mobile devices of long-form video – defined as more than 20 minutes in length – continues to thrive, the study finds.  On smartphones, for example, 20-to-40-minute long videos were viewed to completion 57 per cent of the time, while videos exceeding 40 minutes (ultra-long form) were viewed to completion more than 45 per cent of the time, the Ooyala study found.

On other devices, Ooyala found:

• Viewers watched long-form content (20-40 mins.) to completion 61 per cent on tablets and 71 per cent on PCs
• Viewers watched ultra-long form content (40+ mins.) to completion 51 per cent tablets and 59 per cent PCs

“Consumers are becoming far more comfortable watching any content on every screen than they’ve ever been,” said Jim O’Neill, Ooyala principal analyst.  “The traditional barriers to multiscreen viewing — the amount of available premium content, the cost of service and the quality of experience — all have fallen. The first screen for viewing truly has become the screen that’s most available to the viewer at the moment.”

Regional Mobile Video Viewing Trends

Latin America (LatAm) saw significant quarter-over-quarter gains in mobile’s share of video plays while Asia-Pacific grew slightly, despite declines in Europe/Middle East/Africa (EMEA) and North America.

But in North America, mobile video plays were still up 9 per cent from a year ago and 18 per cent over the past two years, accounting for 56.6 per cent of all video plays in Q1 2018.

In related findings:

• EMEA saw mobile video plays hit 58 per cent in the first quarter of 2018, a 22 per cent Y/Y increase from 47.8 per cent in Q1 2017, and 39 per cent better than Q1 2016
• Asia-Pac saw the share of video plays on mobile devices hit 60.7 per cent, up from 52.3 per cent a year ago
• Latin America’s share of video plays on mobile devices reached an all-time high of 59.5 per cent

The Rising Tide of Streaming Video Content

While OTT services more than doubled their hours of content offerings in Q4 2017, even more content was created in Q1 2018 – reaching nearly three times the amount processed the year before.

Specifically:

• Long-form content (longer than 20 minutes) jumped 189 per cent
• Medium-form content (5-20 minutes) was up 171 per cent
• Short-form (shorter than 5 minutes) grew 178 per cent

“Mobile video content is coming from an expanding universe of creators and distributors across sports, news, entertainment and enterprise,” added O’Neill. “They understand that mobile needs to be a pillar of any content provider’s streaming video strategy.  Ignore mobile, or allow lower-quality standards for your video stream, and you’re likely to lose a significant portion of your business.”