The good news is that consumer
time spent with media surged during 2020. The bad news is their share of time spent with media supported primarily by advertising dollars fell to its all-time low, according to the latest edition of
PQ Media's annual Global Consumer Media Usage Forecast.
The forecast, which is being released this morning, shows the time the average American spent with all forms of media rose 2.9% to
73 hours weekly in 2020, largely due to the impact of the global pandemic.
The time spent by the average global citizen rose 2.8% to 53 hours weekly, according to the new forecast.
But
given a corresponding erosion in ad spending, coupled with greater adoption of subscription streaming services and other media during 2020, the share of time spent with ad-supported media fell to
44.8% in the U.S. and to 65.8% worldwide -- both of which are historic lows since PQ Media has been tracking it.
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“The prime beneficiaries of this paradoxical growth surge in media usage
were consumer-supported media, particularly digital video, audio, games, social media and chat services," states PQ CEO Patrick Quinn, adding: "There’s no doubt that streaming media as a group
were the hands-down winners in an otherwise loser of a year for many media stakeholders, particularly those dependent on advertising-driven media.
“As a result, consumer-driven media
usage continued a nearly 20-year pattern of snatching away market share from advertising & marketing-supported media, as consumer-driven media accounted for over 55% of all media usage in the US,
while its share grew to nearly 35% globally in 2020.”
