Why do viewers mute videos?

Publication date: 2024-06-29 | Source: Yandex

70% of Runet users watch online videos daily, and 89% do so at least several times a week, according to a new study by Yandex Advertising. It turns out that nearly half of all respondents watch videos without sound.

How People Watch Videos Online

Movies and TV series are the most popular among the audience—76% of respondents watched them in the last month. In second place are short videos up to one minute long, watched by 66% of users. Every third user pays attention to advertising videos.

Users often watch videos without sound: among the most active age segment of 18-44 years, 41% of respondents did this in the past month. Among those who watched videos without sound, one in five did so daily, and 57% did so several times a week or more often.

Reasons for Muting Videos

According to the study, here are the reasons why respondents most often muted videos:

Being in a public place (public transport, store, etc.)—45%
Muting the video during ads—36%
Being in a noisy place where sound was not heard anyway—31%
Scrolling through social media feeds—30%
Watching or listening to something else simultaneously—29%
Simply out of habit—21%

Audience of Videos with Subtitles

In the last month, 56% of respondents watched videos with subtitles, and 2/3 of them watch such videos several times a week. The highest number of viewers of videos with subtitles is among the young audience: 68% among users aged 18-24 years and 64% among the 25-34 age group.

Subtitles are most often used when watching short videos—77%. Also, 41% of viewers watched ads with subtitles.

Features of Watching Videos with Subtitles

One in five viewers manually enables subtitles when watching videos.

93% of them may turn on the sound while watching videos with subtitles if the text interests them. Moreover, 79% believe that subtitles make watching videos more convenient. 19% use subtitles for better understanding of the plot, even in videos in Russian.

The study also showed that 73% of respondents do not use ad blockers.

What About Others?

It seems that a significant proportion of users on the Western market also prefer to watch videos without sound. Several studies (1, 2) show that 85% of videos on Facebook are watched without sound. Another study reports that on Twitter, videos without sound but with subtitles or text overlays get 28% more viewing time and provide 1.8 times higher ROI.

Key Reasons for Muting Sound:

Multifunctionality and convenience. Users often watch videos in crowded places or on the go, where using sound can be inconvenient or impossible.
Waiting in lines or performing other tasks, according to one study. Many find it more convenient to watch videos without sound while waiting or when they are busy with other things.

Trends in Videos with Subtitles

Growing popularity of short videos. On platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels, short videos are gaining popularity. Subtitles in such videos help retain viewers' attention (HubSpot Blog post).
Effectiveness of marketing videos. Video marketing with subtitles helps convey information better and increases viewer engagement, especially when videos are watched without sound. This is confirmed by the fact that 93% of companies report gaining new customers through social media videos.

Conclusion

Returning to the Yandex study, it showed that video content plays an important role in the daily lives of Runet users, and more and more people prefer to watch videos without sound for various reasons.

Subtitles, as it turns out, become a key tool for improving the user experience and increasing viewer engagement. They not only make viewing more comfortable but also help better understand the content of the video. The young audience actively uses this feature, highlighting the importance of integrating subtitles into video content.

Advertisers and content creators can use this data to improve the effectiveness of their videos by adding subtitles and optimizing content for those who prefer to watch videos without sound. For example, Yandex.Direct has introduced an automatic subtitle generation feature, which they believe provides unique opportunities to enhance audience interaction and increase engagement.

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