LIVE FROM CTIA SUPER MOBILITY WEEK:  Executives from cable and satellite sports channel ESPN and online video service Hulu both sang the praises for how much of their content is now viewed on mobile devices but mobile advertising and capacity on 4G networks remain unfinished business for mobile video.

Alcatel-Lucent CEO Michel Combes (pictured), sitting on the same panel, said the mobile industry is entering a “video-first world” which he characterised as “a dramatic change”.

Mobile video is being pushed as a key theme at this week’s Super Mobility Week event in Las Vegas.

Combes pointed to some steps the industry needed to take: “We still have the potential to increase quality, speed and coverage of LTE networks by bringing in some new spectrum as well using new sites and leveraging small cells, which is a new frontier for our industry.”

Also, there is technology such as multicasting which brings a new approach to cope with traffic levels, for instance in stadiums or at large events.

Combes said 60 per cent of streaming on mobile has what he characterised as “some issues”, addressable via the measures he mentioned.

Asking the questions during the panel discussion was moderator Dan Mead, president and CEO of Verizon Wireless, as well as CTIA chairman.

Tim Connolly, Hulu’s head of distribution and strategic partnerships, said the online video provider did not have a mobile offering until three years ago, but now it represents 20 per cent of total usage.

Total usage is currently running at 500 million video views per month.

“We are seeing really interesting and distinct behavioural patterns as it relates to desktop, tablet and smartphone,” added Sean Bratches, sales and marketing EVP with ESPN.

The peaktime for desktop video was the weekday at work, he said – a comment which drew laughter from the audience.  But primetime for smartphones was the weekend when games were on. And tablets are used much more in the home, he said.

However, leveraging this kind of customer data for advertisers is not straightforward.

“Advertising on mobile is kinda tricky,” pointed out Hulu’s Connolly. “In television, there is Nielsen which people complain about but at the end of the day, it is a measurement standard that advertisers buy into. Nielsen have not yet brought their measurement standard to mobile in a good way yet. It’s coming but it’s going to take some time.”