Mobile devices will become the most important medium for online video in 2016

More and more people are watching videos via smartphone and tablet.Consumers worldwide will spend an average of 19.7 minutes a day watching online videos on their mobile devices (smartphones and tablets), compared to 16 minutes on fixed devices (desktop PCs and smart TVs). This represents an increase of 39% for mobile compared to the previous year's figures, when 14.2 minutes of online video were consumed on mobile devices every day. Video consumption on fixed devices remains unchanged this year, as higher video usage on smart TVs can make up for the viewing share lost from desktop devices to smartphones and tablets.this is the second edition of the annual Online Video Forecasts from Zenith. This report contains data on past and projected future online video consumption and advertising behavior, as well as local expert commentary on the development of individual markets. This year's edition covers 57 key markets, up from 40 in the first edition, and the rapid growth in mobile video consumption is due to the growing popularity of mobile devices, particularly low-cost devices in low-income countries, the development of better mobile displays and greater access to high-speed data connections (especially 4G). Zenith forecasts an increase in daily mobile video consumption of 33% in 2017 and 27% in 2018 to a total of 33.4 minutes. Mobile devices will account for 64% of total online video consumption in 2018. Fixed-device video consumption will increase by 13% in 2017 and by 3% in 2018 to a total of 18.7 minutes per day, as more and more households use smart TV.Annual growth rates for online video advertising of 20 percentAdvertisers increased their spending on online video advertising from US$ 13.4 billion in 2014 to US$ 17.5 billion in 2015. Zenith forecasts average annual growth of 19.8% and thus online video advertising spending of US$ 30.1 billion in 2018. This also increases the online video share of digital display advertising spending from 26.7% in 2015 to 31.3%. Online video (as well as social media) is taking over more and more market share from traditional banner advertising, which is losing its impact and is increasingly perceived as annoying by consumers, especially on mobile devices.More advertising expenditure for online video advertising on fixed devices by 2018Even though more online video is now consumed on mobile than on fixed devices, fixed devices still account for the majority of online video ad spend and will continue to do so in 2017. Zenith estimates that fixed video ad spend will account for 68% of all online video ad spend this year, up from 75% last year. Mobile advertising is not expected to catch up with fixed advertising until 2018. As video advertising spots are better received and more effective on larger displays, advertisers will continue to be prepared to pay top prices for video advertising spots on fixed devices.Online video advertising complements television advertisingIn many markets, it is common for retail brands to view online video as a complement to traditional television rather than a competitor. Online video can significantly extend the reach of TV campaigns, especially among young and higher-income consumers, the main target audience for online video. In smaller markets, TV commercials are simply transferred one-to-one to online video, but this is not the most effective use of this medium: commercials for online video have a greater impact when they are shorter than the classic 30-second spots. Some brands have been successful by expanding their advertising content and, for example, developing the storyline of their TV campaign for the interested audience as an online video. As already shown in our Advertising Expenditure Forecasts Reports show that TV and online video have increased their combined share of global display advertising - i.e. higher ad spend across all media except digital search and classifieds. In 2015, TV and online video accounted for 48.5 percent of global display advertising, up from 43.8 percent in 2010 and expected to reach 49.6 percent in 2018. "With the increasing availability of mobile devices and fast data lines, consumers now have access to online video content at any time," said Jonathan Barnard, Head of Forecasting at Zenith. "This opens up new opportunities for advertisers to communicate directly with consumers. They can combine the audiovisual advertising power of brand development with the desired targeted and individual advertising message in their online video commercials."