Mobile Cannibalizing Other Media, Finds Latest Zenith Media Consumption Forecast

Time spent using the mobile Internet will rise nearly 28% in 2016 while time spent with other forms of media will decline 3.4% worldwide, according to a study released earlier this week from Zenith, a division of Publicis Media.

The annual study is the second edition of Zenith’s Media Consumption Forecasts report. It predicts how the amount of time consumers spend with different media will change between 2016 and 2018. It covers 71 countries and tracks time spent with print media (newspapers and magazines), television, radio, cinema, the Internet and viewing outdoor advertising.

Percentage Change in Time Spent With Each Medium in 2016

(Source: Zenith Media Consumption Forecasts, 2016)

Time spent on each of these media platforms will reduce in 2016, with the exception of mobile, according to the study. Despite this, total time spent consuming media is forecast to grow by 1.4%, largely driven by the increase in mobile media consumption.

Zenith points out that the Internet increased total consumer media consumption by nearly 8% between 2010 and 2015; it's just that this time is now increasingly being spent on mobile devices. Zenith forecasts that consumers will spend an average of 86 minutes a day using the mobile Internet, compared to 36 minutes using desktops. This means that nearly three quarters of the time spent on the Internet will now be via mobile devices.

Still, in terms of total time spent per day, television is still king. Even though viewership is declining as a result of OTT video services, consumers worldwide spend an average of 177 minutes a day viewing TV. TV accounts for 41% of global media consumption today and is expected to account for 38% even in 2018, according to the company.

— Aditya Kishore, Practice Leader, Video Transformation, Telco Transformation