Screen size on a given mobile video viewing device is directly proportional to the viewing session length and new survey by managed video delivery platform MobiTV has revealed.

The survey was carried out during the FIFA 2010 World Cup for which, claimed the company, MobiTV technology platform delivered more than 100 million minutes of coverage from ESPN Mobile TV with 100% uptime and so gave the company an ideal opportunity to take a deeper look at viewing trends and behaviour of mobile video users in the U.S.

The stand out trend, said MobiTV was the correlation between screen size and viewing session, something that one would expect and which augurs well for the industry given the rising popularity of smartphones. On devices with a 5-inch screen, 118.2 minutes of video were viewed on average. This fell to 102.2 minute son a 4-inch screen; 67.4 minutes for a 3-inch screen; 61.1 average minutes for a 2-inch screen.

California and New York were the leading states for mobile video viewing of the World Cup with 12.9% of viewing coming from the Los Angeles area-containing a high amount of Hispanic viewers who routinely top mobile video viewing polls- and 10.1% attributed to New York City. Chicago and San Francisco, with 6% and 4.4%, were the next leading centres.

"As the mobile device evolves into a multimedia powerhouse, and as the screen sizes increase in both size and resolution, consumers will demand more relevant and live content," said Charlie Nooney, CEO, MobiTV, Inc. "Although mobile TV does not replace our traditional TV viewing habits it does provide a viable alternative. Similar to the need to be connected to email, friends and family, being connected to the latest news and events will drive consumers to mobile television."