The average U.S. TV viewer may regularly watch just 17 of the hundreds of channels available, but that average viewer’s consumption of TV is skyrocketing. The main agents of the rapidly rising video viewing are smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles and over-the-top (OTT) devices like Roku TV.

In the first quarter of 2014, 35.6 billion global online video starts were tallied by Adobe Systems Inc.’s (NASDAQ: ADBE) Marketing Cloud service. The total is an increase of 43% year-over-year from the first quarter of 2013. A video start is a browser-based, unauthenticated video start.

Authenticated videos are those that are played by viewers watching a video that they have paid for through a pay-TV subscription or for which they have a temporary authorization, and are part of what is known as TV Everywhere. Video consumption of TV Everywhere on mobile devices rose 246% year-over-year, and the number of unique TV Everywhere visitors rose 157% across all types of devices year-over-year and rose 49% sequentially.

The largest growth came in authenticated video plays from gaming consoles and OTT devices, which soared 539% year-over-year. That huge increase could well be at least partially due to the new PlayStation 4 from Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) and the Xbox One from Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), both of which hit the market last November with OTT capability built in.

The iOS platform that powers the iPhones and iPads from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) grabbed a 43% share of the market for TV Everywhere viewing, a rise of two points year-over-year. And in what may be the most startling number in the report, 80% of children’s TV Everywhere content was viewed through an iPhone or iPad. Apple dominates the viewing of authenticated videos as well, with a 50% share.

Market share for viewing through a Web browser fell from 47% a year ago to 36%, and viewing with a device using the Android operating system from Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) rose from 11% to 15%. Gaming consoles and OTT devices saw a share increase from 1% to 6%.

Some 21% of pay-TV households now access TV Everywhere, up 31% in the past six months.

The sample size was more than 1,300 Adobe customers and included 151 total online video starts and 1.3 billion TV Everywhere authentications.

ALSO READ: Apple’s U.S. Smartphone Market Share Sliced

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.