Adobe Reports U.S. Mobile Video Views Up 300% in 2012

New Record Set for TV Everywhere Adoption

LAS VEGAS — 2013 NAB Show — At the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) conference, Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq: ADBE) today released a broad set of industry data and insights about online video and ad consumption. Key findings in the Digital Index report show that TV Everywhere adoption increased 12-fold; mobile video viewing grew by 300%; Facebook users are seeing twice the level of engagement with video over non-video content; and pre-roll ads now account for 82 percent of all video ad impressions in long-format content.

“We are at a watershed moment when it comes to engaging with video content and ads online,” said Jeremy Helfand, vice president, Video, Adobe. “Consumption of digital video, and especially broadcast content, is growing at a staggering rate and consumers expect to be able to view their favorite content on any connected screen.”

The analysis of video consumption behaviors was based on close to 20 billion video starts, 10 billion ads served by Adobe media customers and the analysis of more than 450 million Facebook posts in 2012. Key highlights include:

TV Everywhere Adoption

2012 was a record year for TV Everywhere adoption in the U.S. The number of authentications increased 12-fold in 2012 compared to the previous year, with events like the Summer Olympics, March Madness, UEFA Euro 2012 soccer and the NBA playoffs driving TV Everywhere use.

Video Consumption by Device

Mobile video starts have risen more than three times since the previous year, increasing from three percent to 10.4 percent. 89.6 percent of the video consumption is still taking place on desktops. When broken down by mobile device, tablets are growing the fastest in terms of mobile video usage.

The weekend is the preferred time to watch videos on tablets with Sundays producing 17 percent of video starts on a tablet. Mobile video consumption is spread throughout the week with peaks on Monday, Thursday and Sunday at 16 percent.

Social Media and Video

Facebook users are more than twice as likely to comment, share or like video content than with non-video content. For brands, this reinforces that usage of video content on Facebook will further increase engagement. In addition, Twitter is three times more likely to refer to video content on media sites than other types of content.

Video Consumption by Content Type

With TV-related media sites, all devices including PCs produce a higher than average completion rate versus non-TV-related media sites, with tablets again growing the fastest. Mobile video viewing tends to double on special sporting event days, such as the Summer 2012 Olympics and the 2012 NCAA Tournament.

Ad Completion and Click-Through Rates

Mid-roll ads produced the highest completion rate at nearly 90 percent in 2012 while post-roll ads generate three times the click-through rate of pre, and mid-roll ads. People are much more willing to respond to a specific call-to-action in an ad after the video is complete.

Despite higher completion rates with mid-roll ads and higher click through rates of post-roll ads, pre-roll ads continue to dominate overall ad impressions with 82% of the total for content that’s longer than two minutes. Long-form content consisting of more than two minutes produces both higher ad completion and click-through rates in comparison to content lasting less than two minutes.