Mobile internet use will account for more than a quarter (26%) of global media consumption by 2019, Zenith’s latest media consumption forecast report predicts.
Today mobile accounts for 19% of media consumption with people spending an average 122 minutes a day on mobile apps and browsers. Remarkably, this global average has grown from 10 minutes a day in 2010.
In Australia, total media consumption increased by 2.4% in 2016 and is up 7% over the past five years.
Zenith Australia expects this level of growth to continue over the next three years driven by an increase in digital consumption, which is up +4.4% year-on-year.
Most traditional mediums have declined in consumption led by newspapers (down 8.6%), magazines (down 11.2%) and TV (down 1%). Radio is the only traditional medium bucking the trend with an increase of 7%.
Despite this, 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. Zenith expects this trend to continue for the rest of our forecast period. The gap between television and internet consumption will narrow, however, from 30 minutes in 2017 to just seven minutes in 2019.
Zenith Australia CEO Nickie Scriven says that the growing use of SVODs like Netflix, Stan and Amazon Prime Video, is driving growth in Australia.
“The growth of online video content is one of the key drivers of digital consumption growth. Households who subscribe to an SVOD service have grown from close to zero at the start of 2015 to 34% by the end of 2016,” Scriven said.
“Meanwhile, traditional television networks are increasing the amount of content and the quality of their VOD services. On top of the increase in content, internet accessibility continues to increase. Whilst broadband enabled homes are stable at 80%, smart phone ownership is now at 84% and tablet ownership at 59% of households.
“Radio remains the only traditional medium to continue to have consumption growth. Radio has been impacted the least by the convergence of digital with only 25% of the population streaming music or radio online regularly, vs 45% of the population streaming online video.”
The transition to mobile
Mobile internet consumption increased at an average rate of 44% a 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 before.
Here are more findings on mobile use:
- The average person spent 456 minutes consuming media per day in 2016, up from 411 minutes in 2010 – that’s an average increase of 2% a year.
- As mobile device saturation occurs, mobile internet use grew 25% in 2016, down from 43% growth in 2015, and we expect it to grow 17% in 2017. After 2.7% growth in 2016, we expect overall media consumption to be essentially static in 2017, then grow by less than 1% a year to 2019.
- In 2015 mobile overtook desktop to become the world’s primary point of access to the internet. In 2016, 71% of all internet consumption will be mobile, illustrating a dramatic transition from desktop.
- Traditional media will still account for 69% 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.
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