Video viewing is changing daily, but with the huge platforms that sports offers viewers it is one of the fast adopters of video technology around.   GoPro, YouTube, and related technologies have helped the category explode, but the real reason is driven by the diversity of content an enthusiast can view. You have access to the leagues, the teams, to the sports, to the players, to the coaches  that offer opportunities for the enthusiast to connect more closely with their sport.

As we all know YouTube now is one of the Top 3 Search engines we use to find data.   It is a huge repository of information, and action.   Its fun, exciting, and brings us closer to the activities we enjoy and want to be engaged in.   Check out this research conducted by Adobe on Digital Video viewing and how it can affect us in the years ahead.   Let The Page Group help you with your next video project. 

Digital Video Viewing: The New Olympic Sport For Consumers

Hot on the heels of one of the world’s most-watched sporting events—the Super Bowl—comes the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games.

While multivenue, multievent contests such as the Olympics were once considered to be “appointment television,” today’s social media networks, online news updates, and—quite especially—mobile digital video make that concept seem as old as wooden skis. Sports viewing is clearly fueling video growth across all screens.

It has been 18 months since the London Olympic Summer Games, and consumers are watching content on more device types and platforms than ever before. This year, starting with the Sochi Winter Games, viewers are going to capitalize on these opportunities, accessing the competitions via gaming consoles, Roku, tablets, phones, smart TVs, and, perhaps in the future, Google Glass.

To find out more about this trend, Adobe Digital Index (ADI) analyzed 22.5 billion online video starts and 574 million authenticated streams (TV Everywhere, or TVE) and asked 400 U.S. sports viewers about their new viewing habits. The result is the “U.S. Digital Video Benchmark Report” (PDF) for 2013’s fourth quarter, which provides a full picture of all of the digital access points for online video. The trends outlined in this report clearly demonstrate that sports viewing is the engine behind digital video growth and, because 2014 will have several multievent contests, ADI expects digital video consumption to grow five to 10 times year-over-year (YOY).

Gaming Consoles, Android Take The Podium
Sporting events such as the Olympics, the World Cup, or “March Madness” offer too many matches to fit into traditional broadcast schedules. In the past, of course, viewers were limited by the programming schedule and what was shown during prime time, as broadcasters viciously edited content, leaving most footage on the cutting-room floor.

Today, however, media companies can deliver live and on-demand content online and monetize it with dynamically inserted ads. ADI data indicates that nearly half of all of these TVE streams are running on Apple devices, and the number of Android devices accessing TVE content has doubled. The use of gaming consoles for TVE content, however, is growing the fastest, up three times YOY (from 1% to 3%). Sports streaming accounts for nearly 40% of TVE viewing.

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A look at unrestricted online viewing—which is any online video start not requiring a pay-TV subscription or authentication (non-TVE content)—indicates that more than one in five videos are accessed from a mobile device. Gaming console viewing is growing the fastest in this category, with an increase of 365% YOY. New consoles, such as the PS4 and Xbox One, flew off the shelves during the holidays, and, according to Reuters, retailers of video games reported an 83% rise in total sales during the holiday. With so many more consoles in the home, TVE content viewing is expected to more than double this year.

Google Glass Use Grows 8x In Past Five Months
According to USA Today, sales of wearable devices are up nearly 2,000%, largely driven by the fitness category. Eyewear tech, such as Google Glass, shows very small penetration (less than 1%) at this point, but Google Glass use, in particular, is the fastest-growing Web access device, up eight times in just the past five months. By culling data from trillions of visits, ADI has identified that Google Glass looks to be heading for use as a future media-consumption device rather than as a shopping device. In fact, Web sites seeing the highest penetration of Google Glass visits are media and entertainment, with sports being the most popular content in this category.

 
Within media and entertainment, users are mainly using them to watch online video and, in particular, sporting events. (Click on chart to view larger image.)

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As devices such as Google Glass grow their sales, they will have an impact on online video viewing. Broadcasters will bring TVE to these devices and create new cross-broadcast, augmented reality ad formats. It’s not impossible to imagine that by the 2016 Rio Olympics, your office mates will be walking around watching streaming video on a wearable device while you think they are working.

Smartphone: The Comeback Kid
Throughout 2012, ADI watched the use of tablets speed ahead, as the screen size, data speed of WiFi, and high-quality media-viewing applications drove them into the lead in devices used to access a video. Smartphones were not to be denied, however, and use of these to watch video retook the lead during 2013—with stunning YOY growth of 86% versus tablets’ 23%, when it came to unrestricted online video consumption.

TVE saw a similar pattern, but tablets are the primary mobile device used (42%), up 110% YOY. (Click on chart to view larger image.)

With the large number of smartphones in use and the trends in 2013 toward larger screen sizes and faster mobile data connections, phones appear to be driving much more mobile viewership, especially for sports clips. (Click on chart to view larger image.)

Sports Viewing Up 7x YOY
The breakdown of online video by category over the year demonstrates the impact of sports video on the marketplace: With 640% growth YOY, sports viewing is fueling the growth of watching videos online. In comparison, streaming of all video content grew 440% YOY. The trend line also demonstrates a clear dip across all types of content in the summer months, when less new content is available.

 
(Click on chart to view larger image.)

Key Takeaways
In sum, ADI’s research suggests that:

• Smartphones overtook tablets for online video streaming in December 2012, and usage is up 86% YOY.

• With the introduction of Xbox One and PS4, online video streaming from gaming consoles is on the rise, up 365% YOY.

• Sports video streaming is up 640% YOY.

• More than one-fourth of video streams on large annual and biannual sporting events comes from mobile devices.

• The majority of TVE content is viewed on mobile devices, with tablets producing the most, at 42%.

• 37% of TVE content streams are for sporting events.