The audience for mobile video in the United States – 8.0 million in August who viewed mobile video, from either the carrier deck or video content sent by a friend or family member – is up 34% from January, according to M:Metrics.
That’s just 3.7% of US mobile subscribers, but the growth rate is impressive. (M:Metrics also released its August Benchmark Survey of mobile market metrics; see US and UK tables at end of article).
Shortcuts to tables referenced in this article:
- US Mobile Video Usage: August 2007
- Genre of content watched by US on-demand mobile TV viewers
- US Mobile Subscriber Monthly Consumption of Content and Applications
- UK Mobile Subscriber Monthly Consumption of Content and Applications
Other major findings on US mobile video usage:
- With 6.8 million viewers, viral video is the most popular type of video content in the US, and that audience has increased 36% since January.
- The audience that’s viewing programmed mobile video – i.e., delivered on-deck over the carrier network – stands at 2.9 million, up 28% from the beginning of the year.
“This data is very encouraging news for the growth of mobile as an advertising-supported medium,” said Seamus McAteer, chief product architect and senior analyst, M:Metrics. “Clearly, there is the foundation of a market for premium paid video content, which underlies the potentially much more substantial opportunity for free ad supported material.”
Those who are tuning into mobile TV are watching short-format or news-related content:
- Music videos are the most popular genre of on-demand TV content, followed by movie trailers, weather and sports (see table).
- Still an early-adopter market, the audience skews toward young and male.
- Some 9.7% of 18-24-year-olds watch mobile video – a group more than two-and-a-half times more likely to watch video of some kind on their mobile device.
“The sizable growth of operator-programmed mobile TV in the United States, where the audience has expanded by 28% from January to August 2007, is due to the aggressive promotion of these services, broader diffusion of 3G handsets and a deeper focus from content companies,” said McAteer.
“Sprint’s performance is particularly noteworthy, as the carrier’s subscribers comprise more than 36% of the total audience for programmed video. Its early entry into mobile video combined with its support of a multitude of video-capable handsets continues to pay dividends.”
M:Metrics also released the results of its August Benchmark Survey of mobile market metrics – specifically, regarding consumption of mobile content and applications – for the US and the UK and other Western Europe markets.
Below, the US and UK metrics:
