Fitness, Education Video Use Skyrocketing During COVID-19, Says Mux
We've seen plenty of data examining how streaming among OTT consumers has skyrocketed since the COVID-19 crisis began, but there's been a dearth of information about what's been happening with B2B and niche video consumption. New research from video encoding and streaming provider Mux provides some welcome insights into that, as well as information about streaming video consumption by state, based on data from the company's top 100 customers for the six weeks ending on March 31.
Not surprisingly, the biggest increases have occurred in the areas of education, fitness, and social media. E-learning video delivery was up 218%, while fitness and health video delivery rose 149%. Social media rose 118% (note that many large social media platforms, including Facebook and Google, are not Mux customers), while ad agency delivery was up 114%. Other notable increases were seen in online video platforms (93%), news (61%), ecommerce (50%), and B2B SaaS video (41%).
While in-person live events have vanished, virtual events and "quarantine concerts" have exploded. Specific customers that saw increases include Cadenza (live concerts), Crowdcast (live events platform), Vito (virtual events from the founders of Tito), Outschool (education), and Myx Fitness.
Mux founder Jon Dahl says that much of what the company is seeing reflects demand for video getting pulled forward. "A lot of companies like software companies, consumer internet, B2B, etc., a year ago said 'Video is on our roadmap,' but they're doing it now," he says. "They'll stick around long term, and we predict a permanent increase in the amount of online video."
Dahl says the "new normal" will include video almost everywhere. "There's a permanent behavior change happening now. More people will be working from home in the future than we had before, and almost every conference will have a live video component," he says. Along those lines, Mux is making conference streaming free for existing and new customers. "If you had a conference and had to cancel it, we can give credits for it (to stream it)," he says.
The biggest decreases were unsurprisingly in the traditional sports (-45%) and on-site video including action sports (-49%).
Mux also examined streaming delivery by state, and found that it increased in every state except four: Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Most state saw an increase of at least 50%, and New Jersey led the way with 82%.
Mux saw an influx of new customers as well, particularly in the education and agency verticals. More than 57% of all the elearning video Mux delivered was for new customers, and more than 27% of agency-based delivery was from new signups.
Dahl noted that the information in the Mux Video Streaming Report comes from Mux Video customers, and does not include numbers from Mux Data, which generates data from traditional broadcast and entertainment content.
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