SAN JOSE, CALIF.—Mobile video continued its strong growth in the third quarter of 2017, according to the Q3 2017 Global Video Index report from Ooyala, and that trend seems poised to continue into 2018.
The report found that Q3 2017 saw a record high of 58 percent of video plays globally occurred on mobile devices, the sixth consecutive quarter where mobile devices made up 50 percent or more of all online video starts. Following that trends, Ooyala predicts that by mid-2018, more than 60 percent of all video plays will be on mobile devices.
Another key finding from the report was the use of mobile devices to view long-form video. Long-form time-watched grew nearly 77 percent on smartphones and nearly 70 percent for tablets in Q3 2017 compared to Q3 2016. Medium-form video consumption saw a decline, per the report.
One area of interest in the report was the use of mobile devices to watch sporting events. Mobile devices accounted for 58 percent of online sports viewing, with smartphones being used more than 46 percent of the time and tablets more than 11 percent of the time. Related findings included:
- 18 to 49-year-old males were the largest adopters of online video via smartphones;
- Video was played on smartphones four-times more than on tablets, setting a record high of 51.1 percent in July;
- Mobile accounted for nearly 63 percent of all Q3 sports-video plays, with viewing on smartphones above 50 percent and tablets at 12 percent; PCs make up 35 percent of plays and connected TVs less than 3 percent;
- Mobile devices accounted for nearly two-thirds of all viewers of geo-blocked sporting events; smartphones remained the device of choice with more than 51 percent of users.
Globally, mobile devices also had a significant presence. In the EMEA region, mobile represents 56 percent of all video plays, a 15 percent quarter-over-quarter increase; mobile represented 54 percent of all video plays in North America; the Asia-Pacific region saw 64.4 percent of video plays occur on mobile devices, the highest in the world; and in Latin America, video plays topped 57 percent on smartphones and tablets.
For more information, read the full report here.
