Ericsson Consumer Lab study just released has revealed that fifty percent of TV viewing in 2020 will be done on mobile screen with half of this done on the smartphone The report, among other things, details the massive growth in TV and video viewing and the ongoing shift in the way consumers watch content.

The report has predicted that the growth of on-demand viewing will continue to soar through to 2020, making up almost half of total viewing. 50 percent of all TV and video viewing will take place on a mobile screen , tablets, smartphones and laptops an increase of 85 percent since 2010, with the smartphone alone accounting for almost one quarter an increase of nearly 160 percent since 2010. Smartphone viewing, according to the study   also continues to gain ground; approximately 70 percent of consumers now watch videos on a smartphone double the amount from 2012 – making up a fifth of total TV and video viewing. The findings also showed   that while consumers have more access to TV and video services than ever before, the average time spent on searching for content has increased to almost one hour per day, an increase of 13 percent since last year. In fact, 1 in 8 consumers believe that they will get lost in the vast amount of available content in the future. With the user experience becoming ever more fragmented, 6 in 10 consumers now rank content discovery as “very important” when subscribing to a new service, while 70 percent want ‘universal search for all TV and video’. Additionally, according to the report, VR will be on the road to becoming mainstream, with 1 in 3 consumers becoming VR users by 2020. According to the seventh edition of the annual Consumer Lab TV & Media Report released in 2016, 48% of all active viewing in South Africa was on-demand. Consumers, the report revealed, spent most of their viewing time watching downloaded TV and video content, followed by streamed on-demand content, TV series and movies, as well as recorded TV and movies.

Live and Linear TV and video viewing, the report said was fuelled by TV series and movies, while live sports only made up 6% of the total weekly active viewing time. The average South African TV viewer, the report, added, will spend 1, 1 years of their life searching the TV guide for something to watch. When it comes to using multiple on-demand services across several devices, millennials are the most interested group at 46 percent, while 58 percent of South Africans showed the highest interest levels for such capabilities, the report indicated. Speaking on the report, Anders Erlandsson, Senior Advisor, Ericsson ConsumerLab, said that,   “We can see that consumers are not only watching more video but also changing how and when they do so. This is also shown through the continued growth of mobile viewing, which has been a booming trend since 2010. “This year also marks the first time that we have explored the level of consumer interest in VR in conjunction with media consumption, and the findings have been fascinating. VR has the potential to bring together people from all over the world and create deeper, more personalized, and more complementary media experiences. “As consumer expectations for on-demand, mobile and immersive viewing continues to increase, the TV and media industry must focus on delivering highly personalized services in the very best possible quality available.”