Data costs limit mobile-video consumption: Ericsson

A new report from Ericsson AB shows that while people are increasingly consuming video on mobile devices, the cost of data limits many from taking advantage of what the technology makes possible. The report released Thursday from Ericsson's ConsumerLab division — based on research involving more than 22,500 people in 20 countries including Canada and the United States — said there has been a 71 per cent increase in the number of people viewing video on smartphones since 2011. Other points of data in its report were that 86 per cent of smartphone users in the U.S. use their devices for watching video content, and two out 10 people in all the surveyed markets regularly use smartphones to watch linear television. A press release from Ericsson said 45 per cent of Canadians watch video on their smartphones. The report said WiFi connections are accessed most for mobile video viewing. It said, in the U.S., 71 per cent of video consumption on smartphones is through WiFi and the other 29 per cent is on cellular networks. In the United Kingdom, the report indicated it was an 88 to 12 per cent split in favour of WiFi, and in the South Korea it was 80 per cent WiFi and 20 per cent cellular. Anders Erlandsson, senior adviser with Ericsson's ConsumerLab, said in a phone interview that while this level of detail was not available for Canada, this country tends to be relatively close to the U.S. in technological trends. The report said that 37 per cent of the consumers surveyed "think the cost of mobile data away from the home is limiting their mobile viewing," and that "continued growth will be dependent on the availability of services that enable cost-efficient mobile viewing, for example through bundling mobile data and video services." Erlandsson said: "If the cellphone data plans are not set up in a way that is actually enabling significant mobile consumption of video, then of course that will severely limit the continued growth of away-from-home viewing. "What we're saying is, basically, it's important to help consumers in their strive toward totally limitless consumption of video wherever you are, whenever you want. One way of doing that is if you subscribe to a video service and that service will not eat up your data plan." Erlandsson, who is based in Sweden, said he was unaware of the case in which the CRTC ruled against services offered by BCE Inc. and Quebecor Inc.'s Videotron that provided mobile-TV services that were priced by the hour rather than by the amount of data used. The commission decided that these services constituted an "undue preference" being shown by service providers toward their own content. Bell is fighting that decision in the Federal Court of Appeal. After being told of this, Erlandsson said solutions to making mobile-video viewing accessible need to vary depending on the regulations governing different countries. He said there are more cases around the world of music streaming than video being offered to customers of certain mobile carriers with the content not counting against data plans, similar to what was announced last month by Videotron. That service is being challenged by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC), which claims it constitutes an undue preference. Erlandsson said that as a result of the increasing demand for mobile video, carriers around the world have been raising data caps on wireless plans by amounts that are proportionally more than any price hikes that might also be attached. Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. announced in June integrated plans for unlimited home Internet and mobile data that start at $60 a month. Erlandsson said MTS' model seemed rather unique, while adding: "I would actually hope to see much more of any type of combination, ranging from packages between fixed and mobile," to others that might be tailored to heavy users of services such as Netflix Inc. When asked about efforts being made to make video consumption more economical for its customers, Roger Communications Inc. spokesman Aaron Lazarus said the company activated additional spectrum in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario this summer to improve quality. He added in an email: "And it’s also why this week we launched our Share Everything-plus plans that allow customers to choose either free access to Shomi’s premier streaming service, or their choice of Spotify Premium or Next Issue." Bell and Telus Corp. did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Another finding of the report, Ericsson said in its press release, was that 39 per cent of all television and video watched in Canada is done on-demand, factoring in streaming, on-demand services and the watching of downloaded or recorded material. Ericsson said this figure is 35 per cent across all countries measured, which also included France, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Greece, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Mexico Brazil, China, Colombia, Taiwan, Russia, Ukraine and Turkey. It said consumers in all countries watch an average six hours a week of on-demand TV series, programs and movies, which has more than doubled since 2011. The report said TV "binging," or watching multiple episodes of the same program back-to-back, is becoming more popular. It said this is practised as least once a week by 87 per cent of those who stream video online, compared to 74 per cent of all others. Ericsson said in its press release that 77 per cent of Canadians who stream video online partake in binging. Ericsson said all respondents its survey had a broadband Internet connection at home and watched video at least once a week. It said the survey was considered representative of more than 680 million people. Ericsson spokeswoman Patricia MacLean said in an email that the surveys were done in April and May, and have a margin of error of two percentage points. — With reporting by Derek Abma at dabma@thewirereport.ca and editing by Shruti Shekar at sshekar@thewirereport.ca

Data costs limit mobile-video consumption: Ericsson

Broadcast | September 3, 2015

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Data costs limit mobile-video consumption: Ericsson

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