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Half of TV viewing will be mobile by 2020

Ericsson releases eighth annual ConsumerLab TV and Media report

Fifty per cent of TV and video viewing will be via mobile devices (smart phones, laptops and tablets) in 2020, according to Ericsson’s latest ConsumerLab TV and Media report.

The eighth annual addition of Ericsson’s report predicted that the growth of on-demand viewing will continue to soar through to 2020, with the headline statistic demonstrating an 85 per cent increase since 2010.

The smart phone alone will account for almost one quarter of all viewing – an increase of nearly 160 per cent since 2010. Meanwhile, VR will be ‘on the road’ to becoming mainstream, with one in three consumers adopting VR by 2020.

Anders Erlandsson, senior advisor, Ericsson ConsumerLab, said: “We can see that consumers are not only watching more video but also changing how and when they do so. This is also shown through the continued growth of mobile viewing, which has been a booming trend since 2010.

“This year also marks the first time that we have explored the level of consumer interest in VR in conjunction with media consumption, and the findings have been fascinating. VR has the potential to bring together people from all over the world and create deeper, more personalised, and more complementary media experiences.

“As consumer expectations for on-demand, mobile and immersive viewing continues to increase, the TV and media industry must focus on delivering highly personalised services in the very best possible quality available.”

The report found that time spent watching TV and video content has reached an all-time high of 30 hours a week, including active viewing of scheduled linear TV, live and on-demand internet services, downloaded and recorded content, as well as DVD and Blu-ray. However, close to 60 per cent of viewers now prefer on-demand viewing over scheduled linear TV viewing, an increase of around 50 per cent since 2010.

With the user experience becoming ever more fragmented, six in ten consumers now rank content discovery as ‘very important’ when subscribing to a new service, while 70 per cent want ‘universal search for all TV and video’.

Ericsson added that the social and immersive quality of VR technology is helping to add a new and valuable dimension to the viewing experience. With a third of consumers projected to be VR users by 2020, the technology is expected to play an essential role in the future of TV and video.

However, if consumer interest in VR is to increase, several things will need to change, said Ericsson. Close to 55 per cent of consumers planning to get VR devices would prefer it if the headsets were cheaper, and almost half think there should be more immersive content available. A third would be more interested in VR if they could get a VR bundle from their TV and video provider.