Two new reports confirm both the growth of video viewing, and that tablets are increasingly driving the market for video consumption.
At the National Association of Broadcasters conference this week, Adobe Systems released data that showed that mobile video viewing on smartphones increased by 300% year-over-year – although it still accounted for only 10.4% of overall video starts. While 89.6% of video consumption was on desktops, tablets had the fastest growth as a device for video usage.
According to the company’s U.S. Digital Video Benchmark report for 2012, “tablet viewers, in particular, are early adopters who typically spend more money, book more trips, and consume more media content” and provide incremental engagement and revenue opportunities for advertising.
Adobe also said that “TV Everywhere” video content, which allows users to get access to encrypted content by authenticating themselves as subscribers, also had enormous growth – driven by major sporting events and tablets use – and that mobile viewership accounted for more than 70% of “TV Everywhere” views.
Increased video consumption seems to be translating to increased revenues for over-the-top video providers such as Netflix and Hulu, and video from Apple and Amazon.com, according to a report released this week by ABI Research. ABI said that the three largest markets for OTT video are North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, and they are experiencing year-over-year growth greater than 50% for services like Netflix and Hulu, and video from Apple and Amazon.com. The proliferation of video on mobile devices like tablets are expected to drive the market past $20 million in revenue by 2015, according to ABI.
Consumer demand for newer forms of digital content distribution are expected to push OTT video revenue from 58% subscription-based to less than 32% by 2018, ABI predicts.
