Business Insider’s subscription research service, BI Intelligence, has conducted a study about mobile video viewing habits that show a tremendous uptick in the amount of video watched on phones and tablets over the last year.  The uptick isn’t surprising, but the amount of uptick is.  What’s so vastly different between 2011 video viewing habits and 2012’s?  The study finds that the rollout of faster 4G networks, younger audiences gravitating to mobile viewing, and the spread of tablets as the main reasons.  But there is a lot more data to consider in this study.  Let’s take a look.

Mobile Video Continues to Rise in Stature

Here is a chart detailing the viewing habits by device in Q4 of 2012, using data from Ooyala and charted by BI Intelligence:

Here are some amazing stats (courtesy of BI Intelligence):

• Video on smartphones reached 41 million people by the end of last year.  Additionally, as of January 2013, 41 percent of smartphone owners watch video on the device as opposed to 22 percent as recently as April 2012.  People in the age group of 12-17 watch video on their mobile phone 24 minutes a week, and the 18-24 set watch 28 minutes, compared to 11 minutes for the average person.  Both groups only watch two-thirds of the traditional TV of the average person.
• While tablets make up a fraction of the total video-capable devices out there, people watch a ton of video on them: 3.5 percent of all online video around the world is watched on them, while 4.5 percent of videos are watched on the far more prevalent smartphones.
• Tablet viewers watch longer videos (63 percent of their time was spent on videos 10 minutes or longer), and their viewing patterns are close to broadcast TV, making them easier to target for advertisers and broadcasters who know the ins-and-outs of TV best.
• People who own tablets make video a huge part of it.  It’s one of the top 10 activities they use a tablet for, which can’t be said of smartphones (comScore).  These tablet owners are more likely to cut the cord, or never bother with traditional TV in the first place (Morgan Stanley).  The conversion rates on the ads are much higher than on smartphones.  BI Intelligence cites the Deloitte “State of the Media Democracy Survey” when mentioning that, for the age group of 14-23, watching TV shows on a tablet rivals the time spent watching DVDs and Blu-Rays.  25 percent of the group watch TV shows every day or weekly on tablets.
• Finally, tablet owners watch 6.7 hours of video content a week, as opposed to non-tablet owners, who watch 5.5 hours (courtesy of Motorola).

The whole point?  With $520 million (13 percent) of the entire ad market devoted to mobile video, finding these tablet owners, who skew younger and voraciously consume video is important.

Source: Mobile Video Viewing on the Rise: Why It Matters [Study]