James R | On 18, Sep 2014

Mobile viewing could make up half of all online viewing in two years’ time, according to Ooyala.

The company’s latest Global Video Index report shows that mobile devices accounted for 25 per cent of online viewing in the second quarter of 2014, marking an increase of 400 per cent in the last two years. That share of activity jumped to 27 per cent in June, a trend that Ooyala forecasts will continue, with mobiles predicted to make up 50 per cent of all online viewing by 2016.

Mobile devices have always been popular among viewers, but traditionally this has been for shorter clips. According to Ooyala’s research, mobile viewers spend 45 per cent of their time watching videos of six minutes or less in length, while Google’s stats show that mobiles make up almost 40 per cent of YouTube’s global watch time.

While snacking is the norm, though, a growing number of viewers are choosing to watch long-form content on the move, a trend that is being driven by take-up of tablets among users. In April 2014, tablets accounted for 30 per cent of BBC iPlayer traffic compared to the 28 per cent accounted for by computers: the first time that tablets have overtaken computers. Together, mobiles and tablets now contribute just shy of half all requests to TV programmes on BBC iPlayer.

Feature-length films are not the ideal content for watching on the go, according to the report, which shows the living room is still the home of movies: viewers with smart TVs spent 65 per cent of their time watching videos 30 minutes or longer and 54 per cent of that watching videos longer than an hour. But TV episodes appear to be a natural fit for tablets, with their larger screens able to hold attentions for longer than a YouTube video on a phone: Ooyala says that tablet viewers spent 23 per cent of their time watching videos between 30 minutes and an hour in length, a higher percentage than on any other device.

What do you watch on your phone?

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