Slow or Smartphone? The Stats Behind Streaming
Despite huge growth in viewing video on mobile and tablets, many communications professionals are still slow on the uptake of streaming content to mobile as part of their communications plans.
At least that’s what we discovered at markettiers4dc with the results of our 2013 streaming survey. We found that 31% of respondents don’t expect to stream live video content via a mobile device this year. That’s in a market where smartphones now account for four in every five devices sold.
The Comscore report states that there are now 11.2m mobile video users in the UK, a 262% increase year on year, a fact supported by the BBC’s confirmation that by the end of 2012, mobiles and tablets made up more than a quarter of the total of their iPlayer requests.
With the growing demand for ‘on-the-go’ content , mobile phones are now a key channel. According to Invodo, one in two consumers said they watched product videos on a smartphone, while 57% said they did so in-store while researching a product.
As data charges fall and speeds of connectivity rise, we can expect sustained growth. However, a key factor is access to free Wi-Fi, meaning the data charge for video streaming is not on the personal account of the mobile user, and latest figures from Experian show that 20% of all UK visits to YouTube came via a mobile device using wifi compared to only 5% in 2011.
Video on mobile can provide numerous opportunities for brands to communicate with their audiences, from driving purchase using interactive technology enabling viewers to click on the video on their tablet to have a mobile coupon sent to them to redeem in-store, through to streaming live events such as press conferences and film premieres. In fact, social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have already proven to be ideal platforms for audiences to access such events.
We know that social media users like to share video-related content (with 40% of all UK Twitter traffic at peak TV viewing time being about TV according to SecondSync).
Twitter reported that an on-air hashtag can boost engagement and that a TV-related trend of tweet in a user’s timeline can drive discovery. Similarly, according to a TV Licensing report, 57% of the UK’s social media users aged under-35 years say that the social media buzz around a TV programme can affect if they watch it live or not.
With this being the case, if brands can also produce engaging content that their advocates who are already following them, or have liked them in Facebook, for example, share with their friends, there is a strong chance they can then encourage their friends to view, often by clicking on a link, wherever they may be at that time when reading that update.
Russell Goldsmith heads up broadcast specialist markettiers4dc’s streaming services which are available on mobile devices.
Photo (cc) tom-b.
