Global media consumption grew 2.7% to 55.81 hours per week in 2022 -PQ Media

PQ Media’s new market intelligence report revealed that global consumer media usage increased by 2.7% to an average of 55.81 hours per week in 2022, following a 1.7% decrease in 2021 and a 3.3% increase in 2020 fueled by the pandemic lockdowns. (via Marketing Dive)

According to the report, consumers spent an average of 7.97 hours per day with media last year, which is also up from 7.14 hours per day recorded in 2017. The research firm said that the upward trend was boosted by the launch of original content and major global events like the FIFA World Cup, the Winter Olympics, and the midterm elections in the United States.

However, despite the acceleration, various forms of media saw a slowdown in consumption during the second half of 2022 due to the global economic slowdown, which has brought along multiple challenges such as high inflation and interest rates, supply chain issues, and energy supply shortages.

For example, PQ Media expects a slower growth rate for mobile media consumption this year due to the economic challenges and the saturation of device categories, which could further hurt social media companies that are already experiencing headwinds in revenue and investing in less money-makin areas like short-form videos.

According to the report, ad-supported media accounted for 53.7% of time global consumers spent last year, which is below the 58.5% rate reported in 2017. This could also mean less revenue for video streaming platforms like Netflix and Disney+, which introduced their ad-supported tiers last year. But at the same time, their cheaper plans also hold the potential to lure more users given that consumers are now more cautious about their spending.

Together with live, digital, streaming and over-the-top video, television is still the most-used media platform among all the categories tracked by the company, with an average 27.78 hours per week in 2022. Meanwhile, film and video content experienced the highest growth in consumption at 11.5%, likely driven by the release of more hit films and consumers going back to movie theaters.

The report also revealed that there wasn’t a significant change in the use of traditional media in 2022, when only books, over-the-air radio, and print newspapers saw a growth due to their coverage of the ongoing conflict in the Ukraine. Nevertheless, PQ Media says traditional media consumption is very likely to start declining this year, and doesn’t expect a comeback in the near future.

You can check out PQ Media’s Global Consumer Media Usage Forecast 2023-2027 for more details.