In Q4 2012, 53.2% of time spent watching tablet video was with content running at least a half-hour in length, according to the latest quarterly video report from Ooyala. As the study notes, the increasing amount of time spent with long-form content signals more opportunities for mid-roll programming, which tends to have a higher completion rate than other ad types. It also suggests that viewers are moving from “online video” to “online television,” per the report, and that has significance for advertisers. That’s because according to a recent study from the IAB and Nielsen, video ads viewed online during full episodes of TV shows have a higher impact than ads viewed on traditional TV or during short-form content online (see link above).
The Ooyala study covers a host of data from Q4 and from 2012 overall. Below are some highlights.
- Conversion rates (video viewing / displays) soared by 91% between Black Friday and Christmas, peaking at 54% on December 16.
- The share of online video time spent via tablets and mobile phones doubled during 2012, to 8% in December. FreeWheel has also noted a big increase in non-PC/Mac viewing.
- In Q4, tablet video viewers spent 5 times more time watching live video than VOD content.
- In terms of mobile video (phones only), iOS dominated at 67% share of video time played, versus 33% for Android.
- Mobile video viewers were less engaged than viewers on desktops, tablets, and connected TVs and gaming consoles (CTV & GC) in Q4, with less than one-third completing videos.
- CTV & GC viewers were more likely to complete a video of any length than viewers using a different device.
About the Data: Ooyala measures the anonymized viewing habits of nearly 200 million unique viewers in 130 countries every month, processing billions of video analytics events each day. One in every four Americans watch video on an Ooyala player, and more than half of Ooyala’s traffic comes from outside of the U.S.
Ooyala video publishers include hundreds of forward-thinking brands, broadcasters and operators like Bloomberg, ESPN, Telefonica, The North Face, Rolling Stone, Dell, Pac-12 Network, Sephora, Caracol TV, CJ Entertainment, and Yahoo! Japan. The Ooyala report reflects the anonymized online video metrics of these publishers. It does not document the online video consumption patterns of the Internet as a whole. But the size of the Ooyala video footprint, along with the variety of its customers, means this report offers a statistically representative view of the overall state of online video.
