Media and entertainment company NBC Universal's mobile video performance has nearly doubled the company's video share of usage from 5 percent to 11 percent in 2008.

That jump makes NBCU Mobile No. 2 in overall video usage, according to the Nielsen Mobile Video Report. Smartphones and ad support played a key role in this growth, according to NBC.

"Four categories that drive the usage of mobile video are content, user experience, distribution and consumer adoption," said Salil Dalvi, senior vice president of mobile platform development for NBC Universal Digital Distribution, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

"The more of our signature brands that we make available on mobile, the more traffic has increased," he said.

Four years ago, NBC just offered news clips via mobile. The media giant currently offers a fairly large selection of programs via mobile streaming video, including both news and entertainment shows.

NBC.com drove more than 60 percent of NBCU Mobile video traffic from sites optimized for high-end devices, with an offering of ad-supported full episodes of hit shows such as "The Office" and "30 Rock."

NBCU Mobile experienced a 400 percent increase in video views across all mobile platforms by offering more content, including full-length episodes of network and cable properties that include NBC, Bravo, the Sci Fi Channel, Telemundo, Oxygen and the USA Network.

Contributing to NBCU Mobile's growth is NBC Entertainment, with series that include NBC's "30 Rock," "The Office," "Kath & Kim," "Knight Rider" and "Life."

Customers can also get full-length episodes of Bravo's "Real Housewives of Orange County" and "Top Chef"; Sci Fi's "Ghost Hunters" and "Scare Tactics"; Telemundo's "Sin Senos no hay Paraíso," "Dona Barbara," and "Victoria"; and USA Network's "Monk" and "Psych."

"Adding mobile video content plays a big role in increasing usage," Mr. Dalvi said. "As for user experience, offering consumers what they expect, where they expect it is vital, and they want to view video via mobile Web sites.

"They expect to see video on their mobile device, we give it to consumers, and people actually use it," he said. "Mobile consumers base their mobile experience on their experience with the wired Web, so most consumers know to type in a URL, NBC.com or CNBC.com or MSNBC.com, and look at the text content we have on sites.

"If they visit one of our mobile sites, there's a high likelihood that they'll click through to a piece of video."

NBC says that the on-deck versus off-deck argument is overblown.

"If someone subscribes to an expensive data package, that's valuable to carriers," Mr. Dalvi said. "We have various distribution partnerships and carrier relationships, both on-deck and off-deck.

"We look at our entire mobile offering as a way to help the folks that pay us a lot of money, like Verizon, to grow their overall subscriber base and data consumption," he said. "We're offering NBC content via [Verizon Wireless'] V Cast, and our own sites are valuable for them as well."

Despite an uptick in the adoption rates of mobile video, challenges remain in the space.

"Challenges include getting consumers to realize that these types of mobile content and services are available to them, targeting our marketing efforts on the point of sale and focusing on working with carriers to teach their sales reps to spread the word about our services," Mr. Dalvi said. "Consumers need to know that this mobile content is available to them.

"Consumer adoption is largely due to the handset market," he said. "As more and more consumers buy more sophisticated handsets, we'll benefit from an upswing in adoption in mobile products and services."

In addition to Verizon Wireless, NBC Universal's other partners in the mobile ecosystem include AT&T, T-Mobile, MediaFlo and a distribution deal with MobiTV, placing NBC content on SprintTV as a result.

"In addition to our carrier relationships, we have live channels on MobiTV and MediaFlo," Mr. Dalvi said. "Any path there is for receiving video on a mobile phone, we're available on that path here in the U.S."

This past Christmas season, CNBC ran a New York promotion of live video content through AT&T.

The goal of the campaign was to drive consumer awareness of NBC's mobile services and help the carrier by attracting subscribers.

NBC's mobile sites are fully ad-supported. The company would like to expand its mobile advertising initiatives even further.

"Our mobile sites always include an advertisement, while our on-deck content is subject to our relationship with carriers, following the cable model where carriers pay us for their content," Mr. Dalvi said. "As carriers adopt mobile advertising, we'll be right there.

"We're an equity partner in The Weather Channel, and they have a great mobile advertising business, so we see opportunities to accelerate our mobile advertising business by working with them," he said.

NBC believes that there is a strong intersection between the core mobile demographic and the core NBC audience for shows like "The Office" and "30 Rock."

"We've done well across the board, so we think less in terms of target demographics and more in terms of converting our existing TV audience into mobile users," Mr. Dalvi said. "How can we grow our audience and our reach via mobile?

"The question of how and where mobile fits into the equation is very much on our radar screen," he said. "How do you increase loyalty of people who already watch your shows on another platform, and how do you attract new viewers to each platform?"

NBC Universal Digital Distribution is a division of NBC Universal, a company that owns networks such as NBC, CNBC and The Weather Channel, as well as Universal Studios.

NBC Universal is a subsidiary of industry and financial services giant GE.

NBC Universal Digital Distribution drives the company's North American distribution of content across the Internet, wireless, set-top devices and other emerging platforms.

The division also leads content strategy for offerings that include video on demand, electronic-sell-through, interactive television and wireless products and services such as WAP and SMS.

"Mobile video is still in the early stages, so we're still learning how mobile video fits into the overall mix at NBC Universal," Mr. Dalvi said. "Today consumers' consumption of content on mobile devices is still nascent, but we're very optimistic about future of mobile video.

"Drivers of adoption include increased network speeds, from 3G to WiMax, LTE and other flavors of WiFi, all those things going to make it easier to consumer bigger files on mobile devices, and watch more mobile video as a result," he said.

Another factor driving mobile video adoption is that good high-end, Internet-connected mobile devices are more widely available, including Research In Motion's BlackBerry, Apple's iPhone, the Android-run T-Mobile G1 with Google, Palm, Windows Mobile-run handsets and Symbian-run Nokia smartphones.

"The more adoption of smartphones, the better for mobile video adoption," Mr. Dalvi said.

"Fifty percent of consumers that use the Internet watch online video, and I don't see any reason why mobile video can't approach that number eventually," he said.