Zenith
Mon, 01 Jun 2015 11:29:00 GMT
People around the world will spend more than eight hours a day consuming media this year. According to the Media Consumption Forecasts, a new report by ZenithOptimedia, people will spend an average of 492 minutes a day consuming media in 2015, up 1.4% from 485 minutes a day in 2014. This increase will be driven by the rapid growth in internet use, which will increase by 11.8%.
ZenithOptimedia’s Media Consumption Forecasts report surveys the changing patterns of
media consumption in 65 countries across the world, and assesses how the amount
of time people allocate to different media will change between 2014 and 2017. The
report looks at the amount of time spent reading newspapers and magazines,
watching television, listening to the radio, visiting the cinema, using the
internet, and viewing outdoor advertising while out of the home.
Internet consumption to grow at 10% a year, expanding overall
consumption
Global media consumption increased from an average of 461.8 minutes a day in 2010 to 485.3 minutes a day in 2014, an increase of 5.1%, or an average of 1.2% a year. Over these years, the amount of time people spent using the internet nearly doubled from an average of 59.6 to 109.5 minutes a day, while time allocated to more traditional media shrank from 402.2 to 375.8 minutes. Mobile technology in particular has created new opportunities to consume media, by allowing people to access the internet while out and about – shopping, commuting to work, waiting to meet friends, and so on.
ZenithOptimedia forecasts that, between 2014 and 2017,
the amount of time spent consuming media around the world will increase by an
average 1.4% a year, reaching 506.0 minutes in 2017. Meanwhile, internet
consumption will grow by 9.8% a year to reach 144.8 minutes a day. The
internet’s share of overall media consumption will rise from 12.9% in 2010 and
22.6% in 2014 to 28.6% in 2017.
Traditional media losing out to competition from the internet
While the internet has propelled growth in overall media consumption, it has also eroded the consumption of traditional media. The consumption of every traditional medium except outdoor (i.e. newspapers, magazines, television, radio and cinema) fell between 2010 and 2014, directly because of competition from the internet, and ZenithOptimedia expects their decline to continue to 2017.
Newspapers have suffered the most from
competition from the internet, followed by magazines. Between 2010 and 2014 the
average time spent reading newspapers fell by 25.6%, while time spent reading
magazines fell 19.0%. Television consumption fell by just 6.0%. Between 2014
and 2017 we expect newspaper consumption to shrink by an average of 4.7% a
year, while magazines and TV shrink at average rates of 4.4% and 1.6%
respectively. Note that these figures only refer to time spent with these media
in their traditional forms – with printed publications and broadcast programmes
watched on television sets. Any time that consumers spend with broadcasters’
and publishers’ online brand extensions is included in the internet total.
Exposure to outdoor advertising is rising
The amount of time people are exposed to
outdoor advertising increased by 1.2% between 2010 and 2014, from 106.0 to
107.2 minutes a day. This is the result of several factors: more displays being
built in public spaces, migration to cities in emerging markets, and consumers’
greater willingness to spend their leisure time out of the home as their
disposable income recovered after the financial crisis. Between 2014 and 2017
we expect exposure to outdoor advertising to increase by 0.2% a year.
Television still dominates global media consumption
Despite its recent, relatively minor,
decline, television remains by far the most popular of all media globally,
attracting 183.9 minutes of consumption a day in 2014. Internet consumption
came a distant second at 109.5 minutes a day. Television accounted for 42.4% of
global media consumption in 2010, and 37.9% in 2014. We think it will still
account for more than a third (34.7%) by 2017.
Latin Americans spend the most time with media, people in Asia Pacific
the least
Media consumption is highest in Latin America, where people spent an average of 744 minutes consuming media in 2014, and lowest in Asia Pacific, where consumption averaged just 301 minutes that year. Time spent consuming media in Asia Pacific is growing well ahead of the global average, however, as economic development gives people access to more media, and more leisure time in which to consume them: media consumption expanded by 6.7% in 2014, and we forecast average annual growth of 2.9% to 2017.
“The average person already spends half their waking life consuming media,” said
Jonathan Barnard, ZenithOptimedia’s Head of Forecasting. “But people around the
world are clearly hungry for even more opportunities to discover information,
enjoy entertainment and communicate with each other, and new technology is
supplying these opportunities. Technology also enables brands to communicate
with and learn from consumers in new ways. We expect media consumption to continue
to grow for the foreseeable future, multiplying the opportunities for brands to
develop relationships with consumers.”