Smartphones: The short form video star

UK adults are watching video five times more on their smartphones than they did five years ago. 

As of mid-2017, 57 per cent of smartphone owners aged 18-75 watched at least one form of video content on their smartphones weekly. Five years earlier, just 18 per cent of a considerably smaller base did so. 

The leading format is short form video: 17 per cent of smartphone owners watch ‘short videos or live posts or stories’ at least once a day, and a further 23 per cent do so at least once a week. 

Short form video viewing skews much higher among younger age groups: 54 per cent of 16-19 year olds watch short form on smartphones at least once a day, and a further 25 per cent do so at least once a week. 

Long form video consumption (TV programmes and films) is growing strongly, but still far less frequent, and there is still a large base of smartphone owners who have never watched TV programmes on their smartphone. For example, as of mid-2017, about five per cent of smartphone owners aged 16-75 watched catch-up TV at least daily on their smartphones: this implies that 95 per cent did not. Among 16-19 year olds usage was higher: 13 per cent did so, but still the vast majority did not. 

Will the smartphone ever be the screen of choice?

The smartphone is becoming more important for video, but its role is likely to remain as a fall-back screen, and not the screen of choice. Among all age groups, the TV remains the preferred device for consuming long form TV and video content. For short form video, the smartphone is preferred among 16-44 year olds and the laptop among 45-75 year olds.

What’s next for video on phones?

The proportion of those who have never consumed video via a phone should fall over time. Only 15 per cent of 16-24 year olds have never watched a short video or live posts or stories on their phone.  Among 16-19 year olds the proportion is a mere nine per cent.