Smartphone owners under the age of 25 now use a whopping 6.2 GB of cellular and Wi-Fi data each month for mobile video streaming, according to a new report from The NPD Group.
In its “Connected Intelligence Smartphone and Tablet Usage Report,” NPD group found this figure was 1.3 GB more than the 4.9 GB average for older smartphone users.
The report found the average smartphone user eats up nearly 3 GB of cellular data per month, with video streaming as the top driver of that consumption.
Smartphone users under the age of 25 are also outpacing their peers in terms of time spent watching streamed video content.
The study found young users spent twice as much time streaming YouTube videos each day than users over the age of 25, and more than twice as much time watching content on Netflix. All told, smartphone owners under the age of 25 reported streaming 14 minutes of YouTube content and 18 minutes of Netflix video per day, compared to the seven and eight minutes older users spent on the services, respectively.
But while they may lead in terms of consumption, younger users are far from the only ones streaming video.
According to the report, more than 80 percent of all smartphone users in the United States now stream video on their devices.
“Users are spending more time watching videos on their smartphones than ever before, as the adoption of smartphones that boast larger displays increases,” said NPD Connected Intelligence Mobility practice research director Brad Akyuz. “This mobile streaming behavior is further bolstered by the new offerings of wireless operators, such as T-Mobile’s Binge On and Verizon Wireless’ go90, which run on free sponsored data.”
Last week, T-Mobile announced it had finally recruited YouTube to take part in its Binge On offering, adding the content provider to more than 50 other video partners participating in the service.
In January, the Un-carrier said customers have jumped at the chance to stream more video for free, noting Binge On has nearly doubled the amount of video customers are watching.
Since the program’s launch, T-Mobile said Binge On customers have streamed more than 57 million GB of video.
AT&T has also jumped into the streaming arena with its offer of unlimited data – including unlimited video streaming – for its DirecTV and U-verse customers. When the program was introduced in January, AT&T’s CEO of Mobile and Business Solutions Ralph de la Vega said video traffic on the carrier’s network continues to grow “as fast as ever.”
