by   @mp_joemandese
Source: www.mediapost.com, June 2024

U.S. consumers represent little more than 4% of the world’s population, but they account for nearly a quarter of the more than $2.3 trillion people spend on media worldwide.

That’s one of the findings from the just released 2024 edition of PQ Media’s annual Global Consumer Spending on Media Forecast.

While U.S. consumers continue to spend more than their counterparts in other nations — $1,552 vs. $387 per capita in 2023 — worldwide consumer spending on media is expanding at a marginally higher rate since the global pandemic in 2020, according to PQ’s estimates.

“While the pandemic briefly interrupted key secular trends in 2020-2021, this was a near-term disruption of long-term trends that resumed in 2022 and will continue during the 2024-2028 period, such as decelerated growth or outright declines in various digital and traditional media and tech categories, like dial-up internet; music CDs and CD players; and video DVDs and DVD players,” explains PQ Media CEO Patrick Quinn.

Other findings from the report include:

  • Pure-play mobile media was the largest of the 10 hybrid-media silo spending categories in 2023 at $544.48 billion, while recorded music was the fastest growing, rising 13.4%.
  • Wireless data subscriptions was the largest of the 28 digital media categories in 2023 at $283.75 billion, while digital audio streaming and satellite radio posted the fastest growth, up 20.2%.
  • Basic and premium TV subscriptions was the largest of the 14 traditional media categories in 2023 at $228.97 billion, while filmed entertainment via theater admissions and streaming video subscriptions had the strongest growth, up 10.2%.
  • Russia ranked first among the top global markets in digital media’s share of the country’s overall media content and tech spend in 2023 at 84.5%, as Japan ranked first in average consumer expenditures on all media at $1,735.38.
  • Global consumer spending on total media content and tech is forecast to rise 5.7% in 2024, while the US market is projected to post a 4.4% gain.