Report Highlights:
● Smartphone-only video starts topped 50% globally for the first time, a 13.2% year-over-year change and the largest in five quarters
● Mobile-video plays (including tablets) grew 9.8% globally year-over-year in Q2, following slowdown in Q1
● For the second time, mobile video (including tablets) starts exceeded 60%
● Total time watching long-form on smartphones topped 75% in North America
● Recent NFLreportshows65% viewing increase on digital devices over past year and a 147% 2018 season boom in smartphone NFL content consumption
San Jose, CA – October 31, 2018 – Smartphone video starts topped 50% globally for the first time, a 13.2% year-over-year change and the largest in five quarters, per Ooyala’s Q2 2018 Global Video Index Report. Despite a temporary leveling-off in the first quarter of 2018, video plays on mobile devices (tablets and smartphones) surged 9.8% globally in the second quarter, exceeding 62% of all online videos for the first time.
"We see the Q1 pause in mobile video’s rapid growth curve as a normal transition as consumer habits and content creators’ initiatives get in alignment," said Jim O'Neill, Ooyala principal analyst. "Q2 represented a reignition of mobile-video consumption coinciding with new content initiatives, season-finale TV events and sports-season finales.”
“More content creators, seeing the trend toward greater long-form video consumption on mobile devices -- a trend we’ve been noting since last year -- are now developing content concurrently for multiple platforms and are transitioning beyond snackable mobile-only content,” O’Neill added.
Regional Mobile Video Viewing Trends
● In North America, mobile plays increased to 56% of all video starts, up 4% year-over-year and up 14% since Q2 2016; mobile starts in North America have exceeded 50% for eight quarters; long-form time watched on smartphones topped 75%;
● In the Europe-Middle East-Africa (EMEA) region, mobile video hit 54% of all starts, up from 49% a year ago;
● Mobile video’s share of all plays in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region was 74% -- the highest ever, and up 64% in two years;
● Latin America’s (LatAm’s) mobile starts topped 65%, an increase of 20% year-over-year and 38% over two years.
“We’ll see a massive uptick in Q3 as more fans watch NFL games on their mobile devices, and, just as legacy TV networks use NFL games to drive traffic to other television content, this promises a spillover effect for other genres of mobile content,” O’Neill concluded. “Content owners and distributors need to take advantage of this unprecedented period of demand to pivot into treating technology operations much as manufacturing-based industries treat manufacturing operations. The move to a ‘content supply chain’ is a fundamental, data-driven change transforming the media industry."
The full Ooyala Q2 2018 Global Video Index Report can be found here.
