AMT Lab @ CMU

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SecondSundaySurvey: Trends in Digital Video Consumption

More and more arts organizations are investing in digital video production as a means of engaging audiences who want to know more about arts programming.  These audiences connect across a spectrum of devices, so knowing how audiences consume video will help organizations create the best format for engagement. A new survey conducted by Ooyala illuminates these patterns and provides vital insight to the conversation surrounding video distribution.

The biggest takeaway? Mobile is winning. According to the survey, we should expect “mobile to account for more than 50% of all video plays” by the end of 2015. This includes traditional television. With this in mind, arts organizations need to make sure that their video content will pack a punch on small screens.

There are significant differences in the length of videos. According to the survey, 67% of mobile video sessions are spent on videos that are less than 10 minutes long. Mobile users are demanding short, bite-sized content, and arts organizations should take note. Short trailers and excerpts from interviews will perform better than lengthy exposés.

Consumer behavior also indicates that video content can fit on any screen. The distribution of time spent watching videos longer than 10 minutes between tablets, TVs, desktops and mobile are fairly even. Consumers aren’t too picky with how they watch their content, meaning that quality is at an all time premium.

As art organizations continue to create video content they should keep these lessons in mind:

  • Keep it short
  • Make it mobile friendly
  • And given mobile’s strength, if arts organizations are using video for purchase decision, they should make sure that their mobile ticketing functions are easily available.

If you are interested in reading the full report of Ooyala, you can find it here.