According to Ooyala's "Q1 2018 Global Video Index Report," mobile video consumption continues to rise, but growth stabilized in Q1 2018; total video plays increased during the quarter just 1.8% from the prior year. The increase was one of the smallest in 14 quarters, and also marked the first quarter-over-quarter decline in mobile's share of plays at nearly 4.6%. Mobile devices accounted for 58% of all videos watched globally.
Consumption on mobile devices of long-form video - defined as more than 20 minutes in length - continues to thrive, Ooyala says. On smartphones, for example, 20- to 40-minute videos were viewed to completion 57% of the time, while videos exceeding 40 minutes (ultra-long form) were viewed to completion more than 45% of the time.
On other devices, the report indicates that viewers watched long-form content (20-40 minutes) to completion 61% of the time on tablets and 71% on PCs. Viewers watched ultra-long form content (40+ minutes) to completion 51% of the time on tablets and 59% on PCs.
"Consumers are becoming far more comfortable watching any content on every screen than they've ever been," said Jim O'Neill, Ooyala principal analyst. "The traditional barriers to multiscreen viewing - the amount of available premium content, the cost of service and the quality of experience - all have fallen. The first screen for viewing truly has become the screen that's most available to the viewer at the moment."
Regional trends
Latin America (LatAm) saw significant quarter-over-quarter gains in mobile's share of video plays, while Asia-Pacific (APAC) grew slightly, despite declines in Europe/Middle East/Africa (EMEA) and North America.
But in North America, mobile video plays were still up 9% from a year ago and 18% over the past two years, accounting for 56.6% of all video plays in Q1 2018.
Related findings indicate that EMEA saw mobile video plays hit 58% in the first quarter of 2018, a 22% Y/Y increase from 47.8% in Q1 2017, and 39% better than Q1 2016. APAC saw the share of video plays on mobile devices hit 60.7%, up from 52.3% a year ago. Latin America's share of video plays on mobile devices reached an all-time high of 59.5%.
Streaming video
While OTT services more than doubled their hours of content offerings in Q4 2017, even more content was created in Q1 2018 - reaching nearly three times the amount processed the year before.
Specifically, long-form content (longer than 20 minutes) jumped 189%, medium-form content (5-20 minutes) was up 171%, and short-form (shorter than 5 minutes) grew 178%.
"Mobile video content is coming from an expanding universe of creators and distributors across sports, news, entertainment and enterprise," said O'Neill. "They understand that mobile needs to be a pillar of any content provider's streaming video strategy. Ignore mobile or allow lower-quality standards for your video stream, and you're likely to lose a significant portion of your business."