The old adage used to be that digital video had to be short, that viewers wouldn’t sit and watch it in long sessions. That may have been true on the desktop – but video ad tech company FreeWheel’s latest quarterly market report shows new devices are now driving online video ever more toward long-form and live content.

According to year-over-year changes noted in FreeWheel’s Q2 2015 Video Monetization Report, which is subtitled “The New Primetime is Anytime”, video views were are 25%, whilst video ad views at up 32%. Highlights:

  • “Long-form on-demand and live content continue to drive growth, growing at 26% and 146%, respectively, year-over-year.”
  • “Nearly 40% of ad views came from outside of desktop and laptop environments, with over-the-top (OTT) devices and smartphones leading that growth”

Speaking with Beet.TV in this video interview, FreeWheel’s advisory director Brian Dutt went in to further detail:

  • OTT: “This quarter, that was one out of 10 ad views we saw through our data set, which is really phenomenal. Two or three years ago, those devices weren’t even ad-supported – all you saw was (ad-free) Netflix. We’re starting to see, in the living room, monetization through ads.”
  • Mobile: “We’re seeing one in five of our ad views come through Android or iPhone device. We’re seeing a lot of news clips or snippets or TV shows.”
  • Live: “Live sports is driving the market. (With apps), you get a lot more access to games than you get through your traditional television. A lot of the first apps were sports-driven apps on Roku, Xbox and PlayStations.”

 

This interview is part of a series of videos leading up to the DMEXCO conference in Cologne. The series is presented by 4C Insights + Teletrax.