Marketers, take note: Americans just can't seem to get enough video.
No longer satisfied with television viewing, more and more of us are focusing on a second screen (computers) or even a third screen (mobile phones) for entertainment.
The trend is so prevalent that Nielsen now measures mobile phone viewership in addition to TV and Internet usage.
In Nielsen's spring survey, regular television viewing was at an all-time high. Viewership grew by 1.4 percent to 282 million households.
Not surprisingly, adults age 55 and older are the heaviest users of traditional television.
Because more than 65 percent of all American households receive cable or satellite signals, the television audience is now spread across 160 channels.
Television viewing is now more likely to occur in a time-shifted environment. Today, 25 percent of all households have a digital video recorder (DVR), and 35 percent of all systems offer a video-on-demand feature. Adults age 25-54 rate the highest for time-shifted viewing.
DVR playback represents about 5 percent of all television viewing. For primetime shows, the volume grows to 14 percent. Almost half of all time-shifted viewers do not fast forward through the commercials — surprisingly good news for advertisers.
Second screen adoption of video has experienced phenomenal growth. In May, 73 percent of all Americans were online. The average viewer spent two hours and 19 minutes watching some of the 7.5 billion streaming videos viewed. The 18- to 24-year-old demographic spent even more time online, three hours and 41 minutes on average.
We can only expect the use of online video to continue to increase as broadband access becomes more commonplace.
The latest video environment, the third screen, is the next frontier for advertisers.
In March, more than 91 million people — or 36 percent of all mobile phone subscribers — had video-capable phones. Subscriptions to mobile video plans grew to 13.9 million people this year, a growth of more than 5.5 million in just one year.
Additionally, 95 million mobile subscribers have Internet as part of their plans.
Mobile video subscribers averaged three hours and 15 minutes per month using their third screen in addition to more than 127 hours spent watching television.
As business owners develop marketing plans for 2009, don't leave mobile marketing out of your advertising options — especially if your product appeals to consumers under age 25.
While mobile and Internet cannot be your only communication media, you cannot ignore the growing importance of digital and alternative delivery of advertising messages.
