A recent research from In-Stat (News - Alert) indicates strong growth in mobile video consumption worldwide. The research agency forecasts mobile video consumption to surpass 693 billion minutes by 2015.

According to the In-Stat survey, nearly two thirds of smartphone owners have watched video on their device, while nearly 86 percent of tablet owners have done so. While the propensity to watch full length premium video is only a portion of these viewers, these numbers indicate the potential market demand, the report said.

“As content restrictions are liberalized and the proliferation of smartphone and tablet devices continues to expand, so too will mobile video consumption,” said Amy Cravens, market analyst at In-Stat. “However, it is important to note that the consumption differs significantly between smartphones, tablets, and notebook/netbooks.”

There have been significant differences in content length, content genre, and content acquisition across different types of devices. To leverage this trend, content providers need to customize their offerings by target platform, according to Cravens.  

While the number of smartphone viewers surpassing tablet viewers, the gap is likely to narrow in the coming years. The survey finds that tablet viewers watch more video and are willing to pay a higher price for that video compared to smartphone viewers.

Though mobile devices contribute for a greater share of video, the majority of video access is occurring in a non-mobile environment, often in the home, particularly for tablet devices and in the consumption of long-form video, In-Stat said.

In-Stat’s research, Mobile Video on Tablets and Smartphones: IP Delivery Creates a New Battleground for Pay-TV Providers, finds that largest barriers to mobile video growth are those erected by content owners, followed by network capacity issues.

This research is part of In-Stat’s Mobile Applications & Services service, which provides analysis and forecasts of the markets for mobile applications and content, including consumer perspectives, usage models, competitive business models, mobile applications and operating systems (OS).

Recently the H1 2011 Allot (News - Alert) Mobile Trends Report found a 93 percent increase in mobile video streaming during the first half of 2011, TMCnet reported. This growth accounts for 39 percent of all mobile bandwidth, and makes video the largest single consumer of the available mobile bandwidth.