Video Makes it Big on the Small Screen in Europe

On-Demand Programme Viewing on Mobile Devices Grows 99 Percent in Past Year

LONDON, U.K. — comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released data from its comScore MobiLens service showing that the number of people viewing video on mobile devices has increased 66 percent in the past year to 12.1 million mobile consumers across the EU5 countries (U.K., France, Germany, Spain and Italy).

The U.K. and Italy each boast 2.7 million mobile video consumers, up 75 percent from July 2009 in the U.K. market and up 55 percent in the Italian market. Spain is demonstrating the fastest growth, with mobile video consumption up 90 percent in the past year to 1.7 million subscribers.

Mobile TV/Video Consumption by European Country
July 2010 vs. July 2009 (3 Month Avg.)
Total EU5 (U.K., DE, FR, ES and IT), Age 13+
 
         Mobile Subscribers Who Watched TV/Video
             On Mobile Phone Ever In Month (000)
         ---------------------------------------
                Jul-09      Jul-10      % Change
              --------    --------      --------
EU5              7,292      12,122           66%
U.K.             1,553       2,712           75%
Italy            1,750       2,711           55%
France           1,684       2,570           53%
Germany          1,416       2,438           72%
Spain              890       1,691           90%

Source: comScore MobiLens

On-Demand in High Demand

On-demand video/TV programming in particular experienced substantial growth in the past year, up 99 percent since July 2009, with 5.2 million mobile owners across Europe viewing such content. Viewing broadcast TV programming is also on the rise, up 70 percent to 3.5 million subscribers.

Mobile TV/Video Consumption 
July 2010 vs. July 2009 (3 Month Avg.)
Total EU5 (U.K., DE, FR, ES and IT), Age 13+

                                                       Mobile Subscribers Who Watched
                                                       TV/Video On Mobile Phone (000)
                                                       ------------------------------
                                                       Jul-2009   Jul-2010   % Change
                                                       --------   --------   --------
Total Audience: 13+ yrs old                             226,500    230,500        N/A
Watched TV and/or video on mobile phone ever in month     7,292     12,122        66%
Watched any programmed mobile TV/video                    4,265      7,819        83%
Watched Broadcast TV programming                          2,041      3,469        70%
Watched On-demand video or TV programming                 2,630      5,224        99%
Watched any TV/video sideloaded to phone                  4,082      6,210        52%

Source: comScore MobiLens

“The era of ‘video-on-the-go’ has finally arrived,” says comScore European VP Mobile, Jeremy Copp. “We’ve seen major developments throughout the mobile space – in networks, in devices and in software and applications – and now we’re seeing the result: a rapidly growing audience of consumers accessing video on their mobiles, be it broadcast, on-demand or sideloaded.”

Smartphones Drive Mobile Video Trend

Across the EU5 countries, two out of every three people who viewed mobile TV/video were smartphone owners. In the U.K. 80.2 percent were smartphone owners to lead all EU5 countries, followed by Spain (71.7 percent) and France (67.7 percent).

Mobile TV/Video Consumption on Smartphones 
July 2010 (3 Month Avg.)
Total EU5 (U.K., DE, FR, ES and IT), Age 13+
  
          Smartphone Subscribers  Proportion of Total
         Who Watched TV/Video On   Viewers viewing on 
              Mobile Phone (000)       Smartphone (%)  
         -----------------------  -------------------
EU5                        8,208               67.7%
U.K.                       2,174               80.2%
Italy                      1,752               64.6%
France                     1,741               67.7%
Germany                    1,329               54.5%
Spain                      1,212               71.7%

Source: comScore MobiLens

“Smartphone owners are clearly driving the mobile video trend, an indication that more growth is on the horizon as an increasing number of smartphones hit the market,” Mr. Copp continued. “We’ve also seen that recent releases such as Apple’s iPad and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab are designed to offer an incredible video experience, and when coupled with services such as the BBC iPlayer for mobile, make this an extremely interesting sector to watch.”