The audience for mobile video in the US, which totals 8 million in August viewing from a carrier deck or referred video content, is up 34 percent from January, according to M:Metrics, reports MarketingCharts.

That's just 3.7 percent of US mobile subscribers, but the growth rate is impressive.

M:Metrics also released its August Benchmark Survey of mobile market metrics; see US and UK tables at end of article.

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Shortcuts to tables referenced in this article:

1. U.S. Mobile Video Usage: August 2007
2. Genre of content watched by U.S. on-demand mobile TV viewers
3. U.S. Mobile Subscriber Monthly Consumption of Content and Applications
4. U.K. Mobile Subscriber Monthly Consumption of Content and Applications

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Other major findings on US mobile video usage:

• With 6.8 million viewers, viral video is the most popular type of video content in the US, and that audience has increased 36 percent since January.
• The audience that's viewing programmed mobile video — i.e., delivered on-deck over the carrier network — stands at 2.9 million, up 28 percent from the beginning of the year.

"This data is very encouraging news for the growth of mobile as an advertising-supported medium," said Seamus McAteer, chief product architect and senior analyst, M:Metrics.

"Clearly, there is the foundation of a market for premium paid video content, which underlies the potentially much more substantial opportunity for free ad supported material."

Meanwhilst, those tuning in to mobile TV are watching short-format or news-related content:

• Music videos are the most popular genre of on-demand TV content, followed by movie trailers, weather and sports (see table).
• Still an early-adopter market, the audience skews toward young and male.
• Some 9.7 percent of 18-24-year-olds watch mobile video - a group more than two-and-a-half times more likely to watch video of some kind on their mobile device.

"The sizable growth of operator-programmed mobile TV in the United States, where the audience has expanded by 28 percent from January to August 2007, is due to the aggressive promotion of these services, broader diffusion of 3G handsets and a deeper focus from content companies," said McAteer.

"Sprint's performance is particularly noteworthy, as the carrier's subscribers comprise more than 36 percent of the total audience for programmed video. Its early entry into mobile video combined with its support of a multitude of video-capable handsets continues to pay dividends."

M:Metrics also released the results of its August Benchmark Survey of mobile market metrics - specifically, regarding consumption of mobile content and applications - for the US, the UK and other Western Europe markets.

Below, the US and UK metrics: