Netflix, Hulu Dominate Mobile TV Viewing (1 Viewer)

[Kevin Collins]

According to a survey commissioned by the Council for Research Excellence, which is funded by Nielsen, the majority of television content watched on tablets, smartphones happens at home. About 64% of TV shows viewed on smartphones and 54% on tablets were via Netflix, Hulu Plus or another online video-subscription service. Cable and satellite providers’ apps accounted for 11% of TV shows on tablets and 10% on smartphones. The study found that the majority of mobile video viewing — 82% of tablet-based viewing and 64% of smartphone viewing — occurs inside the home. Convenience is the top reason consumers watch TV programming on mobile devices: 49% of participants cited “more convenient” as their top reason for viewing video on a mobile device; 13% said the ability to “watch multiple episodes” drove their viewing; and only 5% cited “fewer ads.”

However, another study seems to contradict the survey done by CRE. New data from Experian Marketing Services found that about 1% of smartphone users watch video on the device. That’s about half the time users spend taking digital photos or using GPS for directions. Despite the proliferation of video apps from Netflix, YouTube and other content aggregators, the amount of time mobile phone users actually watch video equates to little more than 60 seconds per session.

Where do you watch your streaming media?

 

[Ejanss]

Convenience is the top reason consumers watch TV programming on mobile devices: 49% of participants cited “more convenient” as their top reason for viewing video on a mobile device; 13% said the ability to “watch multiple episodes” drove their viewing; and only 5% cited “fewer ads.”

Where do you watch your streaming media?

On a big widescreen living-room set, like it's supposed to be.
Connected to a set-top box (in this case a Playstation 3), since I'm in that remaining 33% that likely answered "Watch programs not available on cable channels". And boy, is it ever unavailable.

I don't know of any real actual human preoccupation with mobile TV/movie viewing outside long travel commutes (and even on a plane, they rarely let you use your wireless device to begin with.) Think much of the industry obsession with mobile viewing has been fueled by an industry that doesn't really personally use the devices or apps themselves, and is trying to "outwit" a technology it's only read about in magazines. They're still recovering from why iTunes downloadable music defeated the CD, so gosh (shudder!), what if it happened with movies, next?--Look, everyone's using their tablets, we'll get the jump on them THIS time!
It couldn't, of course, because song downloads, movie downloads and streaming TV are three fundamentally different categories--But every time Wal-mart surveys me on whether I'll upgrade all my movie and TV-series disks to streaming cloud Vudu to "take anywhere", and I respond "Why?", I keep getting these virtual looks of "Whaddya mean, 'why', why would you want to keep your disks?" I just do, that's all--Wanna buy some used CD's?