Time spent on digital media to overtake TV
March 22, 2014 Leave a comment
March 17, 2014 7:00 pm
Time spent on digital media to overtake TV
By Robert Cookson, Digital Media Correspondent
The amount of time UK adults spend accessing digital media is forecast to surpass hours spent watching television for the first time this year – reflecting big changes in consumer habits.
The average adult will spend 3 hours 41 minutes a day consuming digital media through computers, tablets and mobile phones in 2014, an increase of 34 minutes from the previous year, according to new estimates from eMarketer, a research group.
Meanwhile, the amount of time spent watching television will remain roughly the same at 3 hours 15 minutes.
The rapid increase in digital media consumption – which includes everything from playing games to checking emails to watching online video clips – is largely driven by the rise of internet-connected mobile devices, including smartphones, tablets and feature phones.
“The really massive change going on right now is mobility,” said Ezra Palmer of eMarketer.
People will this year spend 1 hour 49 minutes a day on mobile devices, an increase of 30 minutes compared to last year.
While the use of mobile devices is climbing, use of desktop and laptops is levelling off. Time spent accessing digital media on laptops and desktops is forecast to reach 1 hour and 52 minutes this year, an increase of just four minutes from last year.
The shifts in media consumption are forcing big changes in the business of media and marketing.
Mark D’Arcy, a creative director at Facebook, said that traditional ways of advertising to the mass market are increasingly being replaced by more personalised campaigns.
However, the rapid growth of media content has made it increasingly difficult to capture the attention of consumers.
Marketing has also become more complex because of the rise of “simultaneous media consumption” – such as when someone uses a mobile device at the same time as watching television.
Mr Palmer of eMarketer said that the figures on changes to media consumption were “not a road map for marketers”, because an hour spent checking email, for instance, was not equivalent to an hour spent watching television.
But he added that while the time people spend watching broadcast television is roughly flat, watching videos online via services such as YouTube and Netflix is rising rapidly.
eMarketer compiled its forecasts using data from research companies, government agencies and company reports.
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