Fueled by nationwide elections in additional than a dozen nations and mass tune-in for the Summer time Olympics in Paris, world media consumption rose 2.4% in 2024 however it’s heading for a fall.
That’s one key takeaway from analysis agency PQ Media‘s twelfth annual International Client Media Utilization Forecast for 2025 to 2029. The report sees complete consumption falling 0.3% this yr in contrast with 2024, which might be the primary decline since 2009, through the monetary disaster. One drag on consumption is the truth that digital gadget penetration charges have peaked in main markets together with the U.S., the report famous.
“Additionally contributing to the media consumption decline in 2025 is anticipated deceleration in discretionary spending on media gadgets and content material, as customers worldwide tighten their total budgets as a consequence of an anticipated rise in inflation and doable recession as a result of tariff wars instigated by the brand new Trump administration in america,” PQ Media CEO Patrick Quinn mentioned.
In 2026, with extra elections on faucet together with the Winter Olympics in Italy and the FIFA World Cup in North America, Quinn mentioned, complete utilization will climb once more.
The typical world shopper spent 8.17 hours per day with media in 2024, up from 7.36 hours in 2019. In some markets, like Japan and the Netherlands, day by day media utilization exceeded 12 hours per day, in response to the examine.
Tv (together with stay, digital, streaming and over-the-top video) leads all 11 media classes tracked by PQ Media by way of consumption, reaching 28.07 hours per week in 2024.
One ongoing pattern evident within the report is the shift from conventional media to digital media, with digital rising to 39.7% share globally, up from 37.3% in 2023 and 28.6% in 2019. Whereas that quantity could seem modest at first blush, PQ Media emphasised that the statistic stems from information from China and India, every of which has populations of greater than 1 billion, with many residents too poor to afford web entry and cell phones. In 11 of the top-20 markets, together with the U.S., South Korea, the Netherlands and Spain, digital media utilization accounts for greater than 50% of total consumption.
Advert-driven media consumption tops 50% in additional than 11 world markets, led by Spain and Japan at 57.9%. On common, it accounted for 52.7% of time spent in 2024, down from 55.5% in 2019.
A brand new group of media customers is recognized within the report: the “AI-Gen,” which is comprised of people born between 2025 and 2039, the primary era to stay its whole life with synthetic intelligence.
“In contrast with earlier generations, the AI-Gens might be launched to digital media at an earlier age, as broadband, smartphone, and pill penetration charges have emerged as the best ever in 2025, with youngsters figuring out find out how to use smartphones and tablets nearly from the time they’ll stroll,” Quinn mentioned.
