In the UK, US and South Korea, mobile broadband makes up a “significant” part of video consumption, although Wi-Fi still caters for the majority of TV and video data traffic, according to the Ericsson ConsumerLab TV & Media Report 2015 (click image below to enlarge).
In fact, in the US, cellular data usage makes up almost one third of the total data consumption for TV and video.
In the US, 4G users spend 2.5 times more data on their TV and video viewing compared to 3G users, in South Korea it is four times as much and in the UK it is three times as much.
The report also says that since 37 per cent of consumers think the cost of mobile data away from the home is limiting their mobile viewing, continued growth could be driven by the availability of services that enable cost-efficient mobile viewing, for example through bundling mobile data and video services.
The study, which claims to represent the views and habits of 680 million consumers across 20 markets (although the actual number of online interviews conducted was around 22,500), also revealed that consumers want a TV/video bundle with unlimited mobile data, allowing them to watch content on the go, without the risk of running out of data.
“This is very important to more than one third of consumers,” it said.
What’s more, there has been considerable growth in consumers watching video on a mobile device: 61 per cent watch on their smartphones today, an increase of 71 percent since 2012.
When taking tablets, laptops, and smartphones into consideration as well, nearly two thirds of time spent by teenagers’ watching TV and video is on a mobile device.
On-demand
Overall, consumers now spend six hours per week watching streamed on-demand TV series, programs, and movies – this has more than doubled since 2011 and the average time spent watching video on mobile devices is up 3 hours a week compared to 2012.
When it comes to choice of device, tablets and smartphones are used equally for watching short video content, but tablets are preferred for watching longer content.
In the US, tablets have 588 average monthly viewing minutes of Netflix per user, compared to 252 minutes for the smartphone (click image below to enlarge).
Meanwhile, user-generated content (UGC) platforms account for a growing share of consumers’ TV and video viewing. Close to one in 10 consumers watch YouTube for more than three hours per day,
According to Anders Erlandsson, senior advisor at Ericsson ConsumerLab: “The continued rise of streamed video on demand and UGC services reflects the importance of three specific factors to today’s viewers: great content, flexibility, and a high-quality overall experience. Innovative business models that support these three areas are now crucial to creating TV and video offerings that are both relevant and attractive.”
Earlier on, Ericsson had predicted that by 2020, 50 per cent of content will be consumed on mobile screens and in June, Alcatel-Lucent predicted online video will soon become the primary way for users to access TV content, as the industry continues to see widespread consolidation in the IPTV and cable sectors.
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