Mobile internet use will account for 26 per cent of global media consumption in 2019, up from 19 per cent in 2016, according to the latest Zenith Media research.
Zenith’s Media Consumption Forecasts reports that people will spend an average of 122 minutes per day accessing mobile internet via browsers and apps, an amount that has grown from just ten minutes per day since 2010.
This is the third annual edition of Media Consumption Forecasts, which surveys changing patterns of media consumption since 2010, and forecasts how the amount of time people allocate to different media will change between 2017 and 2019, in 71 countries across the world.
According to the report, mobile internet consumption increased at an average rate of 44 per cent per year between 2010 and 2016, driven by the spread of mobile devices, improvements in technology and greater availability of mobile-adapted content. Some of this extra consumption time was cannibalised from traditional media, but the spread of mobile technology has given a boost to overall media consumption by allowing users to access more media, in more places, and at more times than ever before. The average person spent 456 minutes consuming media in 2016, up from 411 minutes in 2010 – that’s an average increase of two per cent per year.
Despite the rapid rise of the internet, Zenith said that traditional media will still account for 69 per cent of global media consumption in 2017. People will spend an average of 316 minutes a day with traditional media this year, down from 364 in 2010. Even though traditional media consumption has fallen 13 per cent over the last seven years, Zenith said traditional media owners will have recaptured some of this lost time on the internet.
Finally, Zenith found that traditional, broadcast TV is still the largest single medium by consumption time, averaging 170 minutes of viewing per day this year, compared to 140 minutes for the internet, and forecasts it to remain dominant through to at least 2019. The report said that the gap between television and internet consumption will narrow, however, from 30 minutes in 2017 to just seven minutes in 2019.
“Mobile technology has thoroughly disrupted consumers’ media habits in less than a decade,” said Jonathan Barnard, head of forecasting, Zenith. “The pace of change is now slowing – at least until the next disruptive technology takes off.”
Vittorio Bonori, global brand president, Zenith, added: “Consumers now expect to be able to communicate and transact with brands at the time and place of their choosing. Brands need to respond to and anticipate changes in media behaviour, to build stronger and more durable relationships with consumers and expand their business.”
