There is a lot of noise about mobile video lately. Just the other day, MoCoNews reported that 90 percent of Venture Capitalists in a poll said mass adoption of mobile video will take off in the next five years, and 60 percent expect it will happen within the next three years. 
The question seems to be WHAT we will be watching. The answer could differ for teens and adults. The latter, it seems, enjoy watching mobile video in-transit or between activities. Mobile phones, in and of themselves, are, to some degree, founded on the principle of multi-tasking – i.e. being able to do certain things while involved in other activities. It seems then that videos of men doing flips into jeans (short) and old Schwarzenegger clips (sweet) are much more suitable to the time and attention being afforded them than, say, Lord of the Rings (long). This attention span is reflected in the appearance of trends such as “snack drama,” which attempts to tell stories in a much tighter timeframe and feature scaled back production and more require more intelligent storylines. Sports are also huge on mobile, considering the importance of real-time and the predominantly male early adopters of mobile video.
However, young people are the future of mobile video, and they will be the ones to push it into the mainstream. Mobixell Networks said that the 18-35 demographic group currently consumes 56% of mobile media content, a group that makes up 29% of TV viewers. And according to a report from OTX, 41 percent of teens surveyed have video-downloading capability on their cell phones, and approximately half of those teens are actually downloading and viewing videos.
So the question we should be asking is: what are THEY watching? In the OTX survey, teens watched mostly music videos (67 percent), underscoring what a passion point music is for them. This is probably why Kyte changed their model from UGC mobile lifecasting to focus on artist-to-fan broadcasts. The change has made them a standout in the category.
Next up, they watch user-generated content (27 percent), full-length TV shows (24 percent) and clips from TV shows (24 percent). Interesting to see that full-length downloads scored the same as clips. The rule-of-thumb for mobile video has been to keep clips under 3 minutes. But since young people are accustomed to the small screen of a cell phone, it seems they are not only more likely to watch mobile video, but longer mobile video. While this may seem counterintuitive–considering that online TV shows are getting chopped up into pieces–we wonder if they aren’t watching full-length shows a bit at a time.
That’s potentially good news for the movie studios who’ve been inking mobile deals left and right. Sony movies went mobile in South Korea through SK Telecom and AT&T in the US via their new PIX channel. Paramount inked a deal with Motorola to offer full-length film downloads on its handsets, including The Italian Job, Star Trek and Team America: World Police for a total of about 40 movies. Bollywood flicks are also making their way onto the handset in India.
So why should you care? The future of mobile video will likely be ad-supported. Juniper predicts that spending on mobile TV advertising will grow from $335 million in 2008 to more than $2.5 billion in 2013,and it is projected to be the biggest ad revenue generator on mobile by 2010. Considering the big (and growing) chunk of mobile video watcher are under 35, marketers should take note of their viewing habits. What are they consuming? Are they snacking or eating a well-balanced meal? Taking small bites or swallowing whole? As mobile video begins to go mainstream, we’ll stay tuned…
