Media consumption continues to rise globally and PQ Media said that it will rise by 1.9% to hit 50 hours per week (HPW) in 2017. The analyst expects consumption to increase again in 2018 by another 2.5%. Much of the growth will be in mobile media which will rise by 10.1% this year to 10.7 hours per week and will represent 23.6% of all media consumption.
PQ Media analysts noted that the continuing shift of consumer time spent with media to digital devices and mobile media has distinct generational overtones across the globe. Although i-Gens (born after 1996) use media the least – slightly over 25 HPW in 2017 – 36% of their media consumption is done via digital devices. By comparison, the Great Generation (born before 1945) use media the most at nearly 72 HPW worldwide, but only 17% of their media consumption occurs on digital devices.
Meanwhile, traditional media usage is on pace to decline 0.4% in 2017 to 38.2 HPW, the first overall decline of conventional media ever recorded worldwide, although individual markets have registered declines in traditional media usage for years. Only two of the eight traditional media platforms tracked by PQ Media generated growth in 2016 – radio at 2.7% and print books at 1.4%, as radio is an important medium in rural areas across the globe and younger people preferring print books over ebooks due to screen fatigue, according to PQ Media’s Global Consumer Media Usage & Exposure Forecast 2017-21.
PQ Media President Patrick Quinn said
“Media consumption continues to grow as consumers have 24/7 access to content, often driving growth, not declines, in hybrid media silos, such TV viewing rising when terrestrial TV viewing is combined with streaming videos of TV episodes. In fact, the digital extensions of traditional media content, like TV subscription services, accounts for more than half of all internet and mobile media usage.”
In the US, the world’s largest media market, overall consumer time spent with media is projected to grow an estimated 0.3% to 70.7 hours per week in 2017, followed by an anticipated 1.8% gain in 2018 due to Olympics and political campaign viewing. While mobile media is driving growth, there are indications that growth will decelerate going forward as fewer consumers are purchasing their first computer tablets and shipments have fallen over the past few quarters.
Digital media usage & exposure is estimated to rise 6.0% in 2017 to 26.4 HPW, accounting for 37.4% of overall time spent with media in the US, up from 24.7% in 2011, PQ Media found. Mobile audio, mobile video and mobile books, were the three fastest-growing digital media channels in 2016, with a surge in audio subscription services during the year, as they more than doubled in size. OTT video viewing was the only non-mobile digital channel to post a double-digit gain in 2016, as more streaming services roll out more original scripted programming, with Amazon reportedly having a larger production budget than most cable networks.
