Premium Digital Video Viewing Migrating to the TV Screen

December 19, 2016

This article is included in these additional categories:

Automotive | Connected Device Comparisons | CPG & FMCG | Creative & Formats | Digital | Financial Services | Media & Entertainment | Mobile Phone | Non-mobile Connected Devices | Retail & E-Commerce | Sports | Tablet | Video

Premium digital video consumption – particularly content consumption in non-linear environments – continues to grow quickly, declares FreeWheel in its Q3 2016 Video Monetization Report [download page]. The study finds that more US audiences are consuming content in front of the TV screen, using over-the-top devices and set-top box video-on-demand (STB VOD).

Indeed, these methods have the seen sizable year-over-year gains in share of premium digital video ad views, at the expense of all other devices. Some 22% of ad views came from OTT devices this past quarter, up from 13% in the year-earlier period, while 16% came from STB, more than double the year-earlier share (6%).

As a result, more premium digital video ad views are coming from these devices combined (38%) than from desktops and laptops (36% share).

Another signal of the migration to larger screens is a slight decline in the share of ad views coming from mobile devices, which together accounted for about one-quarter of ad views (17% smartphone; 9% tablet).

In other results from the report:

Video views increased by 37% year-over-year and ad views by 28%, driven primarily by short-form content due to the Olympics and US election;

Ad view growth was highest for live content (60%), followed by short-form on-demand (31%);

For US programmers, a leading 41% of ad views came during long-form content (at least 20 minutes), while for digital pure-plays, three-quarters of views came during short-form content (0-5 minutes);

The entertainment category (44%) represented the largest share of US ad views by content segment, followed by sports (31%) and news (12%);

During live content, the average mid-roll ad break featured 4.8 ads and lasted 105 seconds;

The CPG vertical comprised the largest share (22%) of ad views by vertical for US programmers, followed by retail (13%), auto (13%) and financial and business services (12%); and

For US programmers’ long-form and live content, 72% of ad views came from authenticated viewing, back up to the peak first reached in Q1 2016.

About the Data: The data set used for the report is one of the largest available on the usage and monetization of professional, rights-managed video content, and is comprised of more than 160 billion video views in 2015 and 47 billion video views for Q3 2016.