Mobile video viewing outruns desktops, is network capacity the next casualty?

22 October 2019 by Steve Blum
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Brightcove 2q2019 global video index

Demand for mobile bandwidth continues to boom, as mobile devices overtake desktop computers as the streaming video device of choice for the first time, according to a study by Brightcove, a maker of online video tools and platform services which also makes a habit of tracking such things.

Their Global Video Index for the second quarter of 2019 shows that more than half of global video viewing they can monitor is done on a smartphone (mostly) or tablet (not so much). A year ago, that honor belonged to desktops. Brightcove doesn’t specifically place laptop computers in either category, but since they are specific about what they consider to be mobile – tablets and phones – a fair assumption is that they belong to the desktop universe.

Mobile networks are carrying a growing slice of an ever bigger pie, according to the report…

Worldwide mobile traffic nearly doubled during 2018, and mobile video traffic is forecast to increase at a [compound annual growth rate] of 34% through 2024. That’s really not too surprising, as mobile video has been a significant driver of the video ecosystem since the iPad debuted in 2010…

Over the past 12 months, video views on phones and tablets have overtaken desktop views among Brightcove’s media customers globally, making up 53% of all video views compared to 47% for desktop computers.

Mobile phone share increased to 45.4% from 38.5% a year ago, an increase of 18% Y/Y. Tablet share was, essentially, flat at 7.5% from 7.9% a year ago. Overall video views for tablets and phones were up nearly 62% for the 12-month period.

The company is counting on new 5G services to carry this increasing load. It’s not a revelation – that’s the reason that mobile carriers are pushing policy makers – federal, state and local – to clear the road for their planned deployments. It’s also a reminder that 5G is first and foremost about keeping pace with the growth in mobile traffic of all kinds, and particularly video. Carriers have to run as hard and fast as they can just to keep up with demand from the customers and applications they support now. Innovations such as self driving cars and the Internet of things can follow, but only after they take care of their core business.