CorpComms Magazine

The consumption of traditional and digital media is snowballing but spending in the industry has plummeted as users expect more of this content for free, according to a recent survey of UK consumers by professional services firm, KPMG.

People are spending more time watching television, logging into their social networking profiles, reading news and downloading videos online but are less willing than ever to put their money where their minutes are.

Average monthly consumption of traditional media climbed from 11 hours 40 minutes last September, to 12 hours 13 minutes last month. Hours spent consuming digital media rose yet further, from six hours 14 minutes to seven hours 28 minutes.

In the same six-month period, the average spend per consumer on traditional media fell from £9.19 in September 2009 to £7.46 last month whilst outlay for digital media dropped from £1.99 to 98p.

The worst affected area of the industry is print journalism, with 21 per cent now paying nothing for the newspaper they consume, a dramatic rise from 15 per cent last year. Thanks to London freesheets like the Metro and Lebedev's Evening Standard, that figure was almost twice as high in the capital at 41 per cent, up from 23 per cent last year.

And the prognosis for Internet news is similarly bleak. Of those prepared to take up online media subscription, many more would pay for music and films than for newspapers, with 55 per cent happy to subscribe to music sites and 45 per cent to film compared to only 31 per cent for newspapers and magazines and 30 per cent for TV.

The Internet remains the most popular media outlet, with half of those surveyed clocking up time online, much of it on social networking forums and blogging sites, compared with 47 per cent six months ago. The largest consumer shift has been among 45 to 54 year olds, whose Internet activity increased from 37 per cent to 45 per cent.

David Elms, head of media, at KPMG UK said: 'The findings illustrate the problem faced by the media sector in curbing the structural decline in revenues. However, online users are increasing. Online subscription models remain in their infancy and once more developed should provide a platform for significantly higher online revenues. It is early days with new technologies like VOD, 3DTV and e-readers, but they are examples of the innovations and platforms which can help drive new areas of revenue of the media sector in a digital age.'

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