• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, December 3, 2013

Since the inception of TV Everywhere, critics could confidently claim that the authentication of subscribers on non-TV devices was failing to materialize. Over the past year, however, authenticated video viewing grew 217% -- and now comprises 14% of all ad views on long-form content.
 
Clearly, the data from FreeWheel is “an indication that TV Everywhere is becoming a reality,” said Brian Dutt, manager of advisory services at FreeWheel.
 
“Over time, we expect that this will drive increased monetization of half-hour and hour-long TV programs (as well as live streams) across all screens,” Dutt said on Tuesday.
 
The data set used for its report was comprised of over 15 billion video ad views, according to the online video technology firm.

Late this year, the industry also achieved a 1:1 ratio between ad views and video views -- which, according to Dutt, indicates that monetization is finally catching up with viewing behavior. The trend is being driven by 56% year-over-year growth in long-form content with the continued movement of long-form titles into IP environments.
 
Digital pure-play publishers are utilizing pre-rolls on a larger percentage of short-form content -- up to 45% from 35% last year, according to FreeWheel.

According to Dutt, programmers are finally figuring out how to bring TV experiences to viewers across all devices and monetize at the same time. As such, the content mix is continuing to evolve with long-form growing most quickly (56%), led by scripted drama and sports.
 
The rise of mobile is also driving a massive shift in cross-channel viewing. Indeed, ad views were up 230% on mobile -- and 365% on tablets -- while the share of total ad views coming from mobile, tablet and OTT devices has tripled over the past year.
 
Also of note, the 30-second ad spot continues to gain traction across digital channels and now represents almost 50% of short-form ad views and 65% of long-form ad views.