Mobile Video Monetization 2019

Subscription and Ad Opportunities Abound as Viewing Surges

Report by Yoram Wurmser | Nov 14, 2019

Executive Summary

Mobile video viewing is booming. People aren’t just watching more clips on YouTube or Facebook. They’re also using their phones to view longer, more premium content, which is changing the nature of mobile video monetization.

How much mobile video do people consume?

A lot, as it turns out. Eight in 10 US smartphone users watch mobile video, a total of 191 million people. The average US adult spends 40 minutes a day watching mobile video, with one in five watching more than an hour a day.

What content types are most popular?

Increasingly, long-form premium content on over-the-top (OTT) channels is most popular. The majority of mobile videos are still less than 5 minutes long, but 83% of mobile video minutes are spent watching programs at least 21 minutes long.

How are mobile video platforms monetizing?

A few are using subscription models exclusively, but most mobile video is ad-supported to some degree.

How much money are advertisers spending on in-stream mobile video ads?

We estimate that around half of mobile video ads are actually served on video platforms (the other half is native ads in nonvideo media), so around $11 billion in 2019. The largest single portion of this ad spending occurs in YouTube.

WHAT’S IN THIS REPORT? This report looks at mobile video across platforms and the ways in which publishers, creators and advertisers can benefit.

Here’s what’s in the full report

2files

Exportable files for easy reading, analysis and sharing.

13charts

Reliable data in simple displays for presentations and quick decision making.

22expert perspectives

Insights from industry and company leaders.

Executive Summary
How Big Is Mobile Video?
Monetization

Key Takeaways
eMarketer Interviews
Read Next

Sources
Media Gallery

Charts in This Report

US Smartphone Video Viewers, 2019-2023 (millions, % of digital video viewers and % of population)Share of Time Spent Watching Digital Video Worldwide, by Device and Video Length, Q2 2019 (% of total)

Share of Time Spent Viewing Over-the-Top (OTT) Video Worldwide, by Device, Q2 2019 (% of total)Demographic Profile of US Mobile Subscription Video-on-Demand (SVOD) App Users, by Platform, June 2018-July 2019 (% of total)

Device Share of YouTube Video Views Among US YouTube Viewers, Q4 2016 & Q4 2018 (% of total)Which Social Media Platforms Do US Internet Users Use to Watch Video? (% of respondents, March 2019)

US Revenues of the Top 10 Mobile Subscription Video-on-Demand (SVOD) Apps, 2016-2018 (millions)Top 5 US Mobile Subscription Video-on-Demand (SVOD) Apps, Ranked by Revenues, 2017 & 2018 (millions)

US Digital Video Ad View Share, by Device and Content Length, Q2 2019 (% of total ads served by FreeWheel)Digital Video Ad Performance Metrics in North America: Impression Share, by Device, Q1 2018-Q1 2019 (% of total impressions served by Extreme Reach)

US Digital Video Ad Performance Metrics: Pre-Roll vs. Mid-Roll Completion Rates, by Content Length, Q2 2019 (among ads served by FreeWheel)US Instagram Sponsored Content, by Hashtag and Content Type, July 31-August 11, 2019 (% of total)

Programmatic Video Ad Fraud Rates Worldwide, Q2 2019 (among impressions analyzed by Pixalate)

Interviewed for This Report

Ken Blom

BuzzFeed

Senior Vice President, Strategy and Operations

Interviewed October 14, 2019

Tal Chalozin

Innovid

Co-Founder, CTO

Interviewed September 4, 2019

Liz Cole

Digitas

Vice President and Group Director, Social Strategy

Interviewed October 15, 2019

Joel Cox

Strategus

Co-Founder, Senior Vice President, Strategy and Innovation

Interviewed September 13, 2019

Jag Duggal

Facebook

Director, Product Management

Interviewed September 30, 2019

Katie Evans

Telaria

COO

Interviewed August 29, 2019

Mike Fisher

MediaMath

Vice President and Head of Advanced TV and Video

Interviewed July 18, 2019

Freddy Friedman

Smaato

Chief Product Officer

Interviewed August 14, 2019

Anne Frisbie

InMobi

Senior Vice President, Global Brand and Programmatic and Head of Sales, North America

Interviewed October 28, 2019

Mike Green

Brightcove

Vice President, Product Marketing and Technology Partnerships

Interviewed October 18, 2019

Jeremy Huber

InMobi

Head of Insights, North America

Interviewed October 28, 2019

Dan Hurwitz

Penthera

Chief Revenue Officer

Interviewed September 9, 2019

Danisha Lomax

Digitas

Vice President, Director of Paid Social

Interviewed October 21, 2019

Brian Rifkin

JW Player

Co-Founder, Senior Vice President, Strategic Partnerships

Interviewed September 9, 2019

Kevin Schaum

SpotX

Vice President, Advanced Solutions Group

Interviewed October 23, 2019

Lexi Sydow

App Annie

Senior Markets Insights Manager

Interviewed August 29, 2019

Mary Vestewig

Extreme Reach

Senior Director, Video Account Management

Interviewed October 31, 2019

Offer Yehudai

Fyber

President

Interviewed August 16, 2019

Art Zeidman

Collab

Executive Vice President, Growth

Interviewed September 17, 2019

Christa Carone

Group Nine Media

President

Interviewed October 10, 2019

Megan Jordan

YouTube

Managing Director, Global Partner and Content Solutions

Interviewed August 14, 2019

Frank Spada

Complex Networks

Director, Paid Media and Digital Strategy

Interviewed October 8, 2019

authors

Yoram Wurmser

Contributors

Ross Benes: Analyst

Blake Droesch: Junior Analyst

Chris Keating: Research Director

Nicole Perrin: Principal Analyst

Chuck Rawlings: Researcher

Debra Aho Williamson: Principal Analyst