DULLES, Va.—The amount of time spent watching video on mobile devices grew during the course of the pandemic, according to new data from Global Wireless Solutions, with streaming services and other video platforms drawing consumers' attention.

GWS’ “The Pandemic Year in Mobile Apps” revealed that consumers spent an average of four hours a day on their smartphones, and about 42 minutes of that time was spent watching video.

One of the things that consumers watched were the mobile app versions of new streaming services. Since its launch in May 2020, time spent on the HBO Max mobile app has grown 513%, per GWS. Disney+, meanwhile, has grown 92% in mobile viewing time.

Other popular apps were the live streaming platform Twitch, which saw a total time spent on its app increase by 91% over the last year, and YouTube, which grew by 12%.

Some consumers earned the label “videophiles” from GWS, which it describes as power users of video streaming apps. These videophiles spent an average of 156 minutes per day watching videos on their mobile devices. About 31 minutes of that would be on subscription-based mobile video apps, while 115 minutes per day was on YouTube.

Not overly surprisingly, the largest growth of video viewing on mobile apps came from Gen Z (44%), but Baby Boomers also increased their mobile viewing time by about 10%, GWS reports.

For more information on the GWS report, visit www.gwsolutions.com.  

BETHESDA, Md.—The American love affair with anything that has a screen starts early with 1-year olds logging 53 minutes a day watching TV, looking at a computer screen or gazing at the screen of a mobile device, finds a new analysis from the National Institutes of Health, the University of Albany and the New York University Langone Medical Center.

That figure nearly triples by age 3, with this group of toddlers spending 150 minutes per day watching a screen, according to the analysis, which appears in JAMA Pediatrics.

"Our results indicate that screen habits begin early," said Edwina Yeung, Ph.D., the study's senior author and an investigator in the Epidemiology Branch of NIH's Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). "This finding suggests that interventions to reduce screen time could have a better chance of success if introduced early."

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends children under 18 months have no exposure to digital media. Eighteen- to 24-month-year-old children should have a slow introduction to screens, and 2- to 5-year-old children should be limited to an hour a day, according to the academy. The latest research found 87% of children studied spent more than the recommended time watching a screen; however, viewing pares back as children reach 7 and 8 years of age, most likely because of school-related activities, the researchers said.

While early childhood screen time is far higher than the academy recommends, it pales in comparison to the average time spent each day by U.S. adults 18 years old and older. In the first quarter of 2019, this group spent 9 hours and 45 minutes per day with screen media (11:27 total media time minus 1:42 spent with radio), according to “The Nielsen Total Audience Report: Q1.”

The NICHD researchers analyzed data from the Upstate KIDS Study, which followed children conceived after infertility treatments and born in New York from 2008 to 2010. Nearly 4,000 mothers took part and responded to questions about their children’s media use at 12, 18, 24, 30 and 36 months of age. When their children were 7 and 8 years old they responded to media-related questions as well, according to the researchers.

Children were classified into two groups based on their increase in average daily screen time from age 1 to 3. Seventy-three percent had the smallest increase—from an average of 51 minutes per day to 1:47 per day. Twenty-seven percent had the highest increase—from 37 minutes to nearly 4 hours per day, they said.

The researchers found that the higher the level of education of parents the less likely their children would be in the group with the greater increase in screen time. Girls were slightly less likely to be in the group with the higher increase in viewing time than boys, and children of first-time moms were more likely to be in the group.

They also found that children in home-based care, whether by a parent, babysitter or relative, were more than twice as likely to have high screen time.

SEATTLE—Teleprompting has come a long way since the half silvered mirror allowed scripts to be scrolled in front of the camera lens, unseen by the viewers at home. Today, the influx of mobile devices connected via IP has greatly expanded options and capabilities for any newscaster (or politician).

NO MORE CONVERTING

The new standard for IP video transport prompted Cuescript to roll out the CSMV2, a prompting system based on the SMPTE-2110 protocol, according to Michael Accardi, president of the company.

“With this solution, I don’t need a single adapter cable, I don’t need a single up converter, down converter, all that expense, all those failure points,” he said. “We’ve easily been working on that five years, because SMPTE hadn’t actually decided on a standard until recently.”

Not everybody needs to dive in head first to a total IP prompting solution, however.

“There are now some applications where you say: ‘this IP stuff sounds interesting,’” Accardi added. “But if you’re in an installation that has distribution for composite or HD-SDI, going to an IP solution doesn’t buy you much.”

Accardi says stations can use IP to stay connected between hubs and remote facilities.

“They can connect between the big facility and the little remote facilities via IP, as long as they can see the network,” he said. “They can prompt to that remote facility and it doesn’t cost them anything. It’s such a simple, simple way to do it.

“So we’re actually thinking IP is a hybrid,” he added. “It kind of works with the guys who have coax already, but when they’re doing a remote, that’s all SMPTE 2110 IP.”

READY FOR IP

Robin Brown, product manager for prompters at Autoscript and Autocue with The Vitec Group, agrees that not everybody needs to go full-tilt into IP prompting. “Customers or users who are a little bit apprehensive about going all IP can still use exactly the same workflow that they did before,” he said.

But they want to be ready when a customer wants to deploy IP. Brown said the company began redeveloping its Autoscript products “from soup to nuts” approximately two and a half years ago.

“We’ve completely redeveloped the application, the connection and the mode of data transport,” he said. “So basically, all of the devices now have IP connectivity.”

Brown emphasizes that the new IP-based prompters send data, not video over IP.

“When the script comes in from the newsroom, when we send it to our device which is either in Seattle, or in L.A. or it’s in San Francisco or in London, it gets sent as small data packets,” he said. “The rendering is done in the device itself. So the monitor which the talent is sitting, reading from, we’re not streaming video.

“So you can send very small data packets very quickly, very easily, very simple to configure, and it means you can do prompting anywhere,” Brown added. “And we also do it on an iPad. So rather than just a big studio teleprompter, we can send exactly the same data to an iPad. If you have breaking news and you need a prompter, you can take your iPad with you, stick it on your Wi-Fi network, and the scripts are then scrolled from the main newsroom studio.”

TEAM EFFORT

Chris O’Brien is not only managing partner of Norwood, N.J.-based prompter manufacturer Telescript International, he also owns VIP, a teleprompting service company.

“Because of the relationship between Telescript and VIP,” he said, “we use feedback from VIP operators to help us change and adapt our prompting equipment. We make adjustments for the industry and professional operator based on the feedback we get from them.”

One feature they’ve added for the most complicated prompting jobs is a proprietary messaging system, where operators can send private messages to each other. He cited the example of an Oscars or Emmys program, “where you need multiple operators working the show because it’s so difficult to do,” he said. “There are so many changes. Maybe they’re running out of time. Maybe somebody didn’t show up, which happens.

“So with our messaging system, one operator can send a message that says ‘hey listen, I’ve made an update, or there’s something going on,’ where they can talk to each other. And it allows multiple writers to make changes to scripts and send them to the prompter while it’s still in the Prompt mode. It’s a big deal to allow those instantaneous last minute changes that those shows demand.”

STAYING UP TO DATE

Prompting software needs to stay current with the latest OS it resides on, according to JT Meidl, president of Mirror Image Teleprompters in Oshkosh, Wis. “There’s nothing worse than software that doesn’t work,” he said.

“We deal with a lot of schools and small TV stations as well, and when they make an investment in software, they don’t want it obsolete after a year or so. So it’s important to me that software is updated to the latest operating systems.” (All prompter makers we talked to made a point of staying current to operating systems.)

Meidl pointed to a split of customer opinions when it comes to replacing monitors for teleprompting systems. “On the industrial side, people want HDMI inputs,” he said. “On the professional side, which is basically the TV stations, they’re looking for SDI inputs. And that’s kind of an interesting thing.

“We’re replacing a lot of older LCD panels, which are VGA monitors, with SDI monitors,” Meidl added. “And of course they’re Pro Series, and they have video reverse. People are really enjoying that because they don’t have to worry about the flip boxes to reverse the mirror effect; they’re having the software doing the flip for you.

“It’s a nice monitor upgrade: we’re able to save the mirror, save the hood, save the bracket, save the housing. Just get a better monitor in there.”

HAUPPAUGE, NY—TV receiver developer Hauppauge is responding to the current trend of cord-cutting by launching a “Remote Scheduling TV” feature to its Cordcutter TV solution that allows consumers to schedule recordings of live HDTV shows—delivered over the air for free—to view on their smartphones, tablets or digital media players.

While the Cordcutter TV has allowed the ability to record directly onto mobile devices, the new feature also adds the ability to make scheduled recordings directly on the Cordcutter TV unit. The compression technology in Cordcutter TV reduces the network bandwidth needed to stream live TV, while maximizing the battery life of phones and tablets.

Consisting of a small box that connects to a TV antenna, Cordcutter TV includes two HDTV TV receivers that can send two TV shows simultaneously via the home Wi-Fi network to iPhones, iPads, Android phones and tablets plus digital media players like the Amazon FireTV, AppleTV and the Roku media player.

With this new update, users can plug a USB thumb drive into the back of the Cordcutter TV device, and use the companion myTV app to schedule recordings, with each live TV hour consuming about 2 Gbytes of storage space.

The Remote Scheduling TV feature is a free upgrade to all Cordcutter TV users. The solution requires updated firmware that’s installed on the Cordcutter TV device, and the myTV app for Android, iOS and AppleTV devices. 

HERTFORDSHIRE, UK--Global consumer spending on entertainment content—including TV, video, music and games—will reach $439 billion by 2021, according to a new report from From Futuresource Consulting. The trend, outlined in the U.K. research firm's “Global Entertainment Content Outlook” is fueled by the use of smartphones, and represents a 17 percent increase over 2017 spending levels.

Subscription Video on Demand (SVoD) services, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Hulu, are rapidly dominating the home video entertainment sector, including DVD, Blu-ray, VoD, SVoD, and EST (Electronic Sell-Through). While this sector was just 13% of consumer home video spending in 2013, by the end of 2017, SVoD alone comprised almost half of the $42 billion spent worldwide.

Global SVoD subscription spending, estimated at $19 billion in 2017, is expected to rise at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15% between 2017 and 2021, when it will account for 70 percent of total home video spending, largely due to households taking multiple services.

[Read: The Top 10 Tech Trends For 2018: Juniper Research]

Yet, SVoD still pales when compared to PayTV, which is a $200 billion global market, with U.S. spending alone accounting for half. The Futuresource report identifies bundling PayTV services with broadband/telephony, the early availability of premium content, and access to exclusive fare like sports as key factors driving its appeal.

For consumers that want to bundle their own TV content, services like Hulu, YouTube, Sony PlayStation, DirecTV and Xfinity had sold 4.8 million PayTV Lite subscriptions in the U.S. by 2017, and the trend continues.

Since offering compelling content is key to driving consumer spending on entertainment video services, the report indicates that mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are on the rise, and cites Comcast’s bid for Sky and Disney’s move to acquire 21 Century Fox as evidence that global media conglomerates are seeking to broaden their audience and market reach. And, all combined, the FAANG (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google) companies are expected to spend $20 billion on video content in 2018 to gain a competitive edge. 

LONDON—Online video is going mobile, as a new report from Zenith has revealed that mobile devices are the key factor in the increase of daily online video viewing by consumers. The report predicts that the average consumer will spend 47.4 minutes a day watching online videos, an increase of 20 percent over 2016’s 39.6 minutes.

This growth, according to Zenith, can be credited to a 35 percent increase in viewing on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets to an average of 28.8 minutes a day. Fixed devices—i.e. PCs, laptops and smart TVs—will rise just 2 percent to 18.6 minutes a day. This year’s findings will reportedly be the peak for fixed devices’ online video viewing, as any growth that occurs with smart TVs will not be able to compensate for the decline in viewing on desktops and laptops, per Zenith, which expects fixed devices to shrink by 1 percent in 2018 and 2 percent in 2019. Inversely, with the spread of mobile devices, improved displays and faster mobile data connections, mobile viewing will continue to rise, with Zentih forecasting it accounting for 72 percent of all online video viewing by 2019.

Mobile is also expected to surpass fixed devices with online video advertising. As of this year, fixed video adspend is more than mobile at $15.2 billion to $12 billion. However, by next year, those numbers are expected to flip, with mobile adspend being predicted at $18 billion and fixed video staying put at $15 billion. Overall online video advertising is becoming more important, making up 28 percent of total expenditure on digital display advertising in 2017, and expected to reach 31 percent by 2019.

These findings are from the third edition of Zenith’s annual “Online Video Forecasts” report. This year’s report covered 63 markets and forecasted online video consumption and advertising with commentaries on the development of individual markets by local experts.