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.

KEY STAT: In the US, 190.9 million people will watch video on their smartphones in 2019. This represents 81.2% of digital video watchers.