The mobile video explosion continues, with new figures showing that almost three out of every five videos watched was viewed on a mobile device in Q1 2018, and media companies created and processed nearly three times as much video content as they did a year ago.

According to Ooyala’s Q1 2018 Global Video Index Report, 58 per cent of all video views took place on mobile. This figure appears to be relatively stable, having grown just 1.8 per cent year-on-year (one of the smallest increases in 14 quarters) and actually declined quarter-on-quarter for the first time, dropping by 4.6 per cent.

Despite this slight dip, the appetite for long-form video on mobile continues, with 57 per cent of videos that ran 20 to 40 minutes in length viewed to completion on mobile, compared to 61 per cent on tablets and 71 per cent on PCs. For ultra-long videos (40 minutes and more), the mobile completion rate was 45 per cent, compared to 51 per cent on tablets and 59 per cent on PCs.

“Consumers are becoming far more comfortable watching any content on every screen than they’ve ever been,” said Jim O’Neill, principal analyst at Ooyala. “The traditional barriers to multiscreen viewing – the amount of available premium content, the cost of service and the quality of experience – all have fallen. The first screen for viewing truly has become the screen that’s most available to the viewer at the moment.”

Over-the-top video services are also producing more content than ever before, across all formats. Long-form content (20 minutes and more) increased 189 per cent year-on-year, while medium-form (five to 20 minutes) was up 171 per cent and short-form (five minutes and less) grew by 178 per cent.

“Mobile video content is coming from an expanding universe of creators and distributors across sports, news, entertainment and enterprise,” said O’Neill. “They understand that mobile needs to be a pillar of any content provider’s streaming video strategy. Ignore mobile or allow lower-quality standards for your video stream, and you’re likely to lose a significant portion of your business.”