Peter Kafka

Recent Posts by Peter Kafka

“Mobile Video” Means “Video You Watch at Home”

Yes, you can use your iPhone to watch movie clips and music videos while you’re in a car or on your way to work.

But you’re probably using it watch stuff when you’re sitting on your couch or in your bed.

That’s not the use case Apple, Google and other gadget makers show off in their ads. But it does seem to be the way people use this stuff in real life, and we’ve been hearing about it for a while.

Here’s the latest data point: Research commissioned by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, which says 63 percent of video viewing on phones — not tablets, just phones –happens at home.

And it’s quite likely to be happening in bed. And a lot of the time, the TV’s on, too.

mobile video home room

mobile video home tv

It’s possible that as we get sophisticated phones and higher mobile broadband speeds (ie LTE, etc), that things change, and people start watching more stuff on the go.

But my hunch is that the telcos’ move away from all-you-can eat data plans will make this trend even more pronounced. Important implications for mobile content makers and advertisers.

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The problem with the Billionaire Savior phase of the newspaper collapse has always been that billionaires don’t tend to like the kind of authority-questioning journalism that upsets the status quo.

— Ryan Chittum, writing in the Columbia Journalism Review about the promise of Pierre Omidyar’s new media venture with Glenn Greenwald