Larger Video Players Lead to Higher Video Watch to Completion Rates

In the early days of online video, there weren’t a lot of options for video player size.  Until 2008, most videos appeared in a video player that was known as the “YouTube” standard – 320-pixels in width by 240-pixels in height.  The below image illustrates just how small the original video players were:

Gradually, across the industry, video player sizes are benefiting viewers and video content creators.  This week, Tremor Video published June 2012 data that provided a direct correlation between video player size and viewer watch to completion.  According to Tremor, viewer engagement rates nearly doubled when video was served in a 400-pixel video player.  400-pixel sized video players generated a 62% viewer watch-to-completion (WTC) rate, while video players between 500- to 700-pixels got a 75% WTC.

Along with creating compelling video content, web video marketers need to makes sure they are serving content through appropriately sized video players.  When watching video online, viewers want an experience that mimics TV viewing.  Crisp, easy to watch video is an imperative.

The video player equation is a bit different for content viewed on a mobile devices, such as a smartphone or a tablet.  Fast loading, smooth streaming video content is much more important to mobile viewers than higher quality video definition.

Fortunately, the FLIMP Platform makes it easy to incorporate larger pixel-sized video players.  Most flimp video postcards contain video players that are between 480-pixels to 640-pixels in size.  On the mobile front, flimp video postcards contain HTML5 video for easy viewing on smart appliances, including Apple’s non-flash enabled iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch.