Current mobile TV viewers may be small in number, but their appetites are big, according to Nielsen's first look at three-screen viewing habits.
“While the number of mobile video users is relatively small at about 4 million, the video usage these early adopters report is impressive, perhaps due to ‘always available’ mobile devices. It is an early indicator of how this technology is becoming more commonplace among mobile users,” said John Burbank, chief marketing officer for The Nielsen Company.
The first three-screen Nielsen report indicates that as of the first quarter of 2008:
- 36 percent of all U.S. mobile phone subscribers owned a video-capable phone. As more subscribers upgrade to phones that can receive mobile video, subscription cost, promotion and network speeds will be the primary challenges to the growth of mobile video consumption.
- 6 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers are paying for a mobile video plan, up from 4 percent a year before.
- 2 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers (31 percent of mobile video subscribers) report watching mobile video with a mobile video subscription.
- 37 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers also use mobile Internet as part of their mobile data plan, a significant platform for mobile video consumption.
The report also gives detailed information on the time spent in hours and minutes across all three screens.
Read the full report at http://www.nielsen.com/pdf/3_Screen_Report_May08_FINAL.pdf.
