Ericsson: Mobile Viewing Up 200-Plus Hours Since 2012

STOCKHOLM: The seventh edition of Ericsson’s annual ConsumerLab TV & Media Report reveals that consumers are watching more videos than ever on mobile, with viewing up by 200-plus hours a year since 2012.

This has helped to drive up overall TV and video viewing, which has grown by an additional 1.5 hours a week. The spike in mobile viewing is offset by a decline in fixed-screen viewing of 2.5 hours a week. The average weekly share of time spent watching TV and video on mobile devices has grown by 85 percent from 2010 to 2016, while on fixed screens it has gone down by 14 percent over the same period. In the U.S., 20 percent of mobile viewing is paid-for content, notably on services such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime.

The report does highlight the issue of low consumer satisfaction when it comes to trying to find something to watch—44 percent of U.S. consumers say they can’t find anything to watch on linear TV on a daily basis, an increase of 22 percent compared to last year. However, U.S. consumers spend 45 percent more time choosing what to watch on VOD services than linear TV. And yet 63 percent of consumers say they are “very satisfied” with content discovery when it comes to their VOD service, while only 51 percent say the same for linear TV.

Overall, the popularity of on-demand services is accelerating at a rapid clip. The total viewing time of on-demand content is up 50 percent since 2010. Consumer spending on VOD services in the U.S. has increased by more than 60 percent since 2012, from $13 to $20 per month.

Zeynep Ahmet, senior advisor at Ericsson ConsumerLab, said: “Based on our extensive research, we can see consumers increasingly ask for seamless access to high quality TV and video content, across services and devices. For consumers in general, and millennials in particular, being able to watch on the smartphone is key. Consumers not only want the shared, social broadcast TV experience, they also expect the flexibility of an à la carte on-demand media offering. Today’s experience is multifaceted and consumers want to create their own worlds of compelling, personalized content.”