STOCKHOLM—Ericsson has released its bi-annual Mobility Report and it highlights the change in video consumption as a result of smart devices, most notably in teens. The report forecasts that the annual rate of growth of mobile video traffic is expected to be around 55 percent through 2021, when it is expected to make up about 70 percent of all mobile data traffic.
Ericsson’s report states, that since 2011, younger generations have helped lead an increase in streamed video viewing. From 2011-2015, the report says that there has been an 85 percent increase of teens watching TV/video content on smartphones, while a nearly 50 percent decrease in time watching traditional TV. Teens watching on mobile screens also tend to do so more at all parts of the day. Teen’s usage of cellular data for smartphones grew a reported 127 percent from July 2014-October 2015. And while the 30-35 age group had a greater increase over that same time period, overall video consumption was a fifth of the teen’s.
“While TV and video viewership is changing for everyone, it’s telling that today’s teens are driving this evolving behavior from traditional TV viewing to streaming video on their smartphones,” said Elisabetta Romano, vice president and head of TV and Media at Ericsson.
It’s not just with smartphones, as the report points out, video is the largest contributor to traffic volumes for mobile PC (41 percent), smartphones (43 percent), and tablets (55 percent). YouTube is still the most popular source of video traffic for mobile networks, accounting between 50 and 70 percent of total video traffic regardless of terminal type. The growth of mobile video traffic has also been boosted by the embedding of videos on social media and web pages.
Ericsson concludes with its report on mobile video traffic that mobility is no longer an optional extra for viewers.
To see Ericsson’s full mobility report, click here.
