• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, March 13, 2017

Innovations in form factor, along with advances in connectivity, are driving adoption of video content on mobile.

That’s according to a report from BMO Capital Markets Corp, which specifically points to enhanced capacity for data cards and broadband networks, increased screen sizes and resolutions.

“Its place at the intersection of platforms, ecosystems and applications subjects mobile to a number of unique considerations, such as vertical versus horizontal video, Android versus iOS, and browser versus in-app viewing,” Dan Salmon, analyst at BMO Capital, notes in the new report.

“At the same time, mobile’s cutting-edge ambitions magnify challenges universal to OTT video,” Salmon suggests.

Separately, slow load times are currently being addressed by initiatives such as Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) or Facebook Lite.

More broadly, BMO Capital estimates the global paid video content industry now encompasses around $355 billion dollars spent by consumers, including $149 billion in the United States.

On a global basis, approximately 78% is spent on subscription content and 22% on ad-hoc transactions, it estimates. Stateside, the respective figures are 83% and 17%.

The firm’s forecasts focus on direct sales of media to consumers, and do not include revenue by ad-supported platforms.