LONDON—People will be spending more time watching online video in 2021 according to the Online Video Forecasts 2019 report from Zenith. The report’s findings project that by 2021, the average person will spend 100 minutes a day watching online video.
Online video is most popular in China and Sweden, with the average person watching 103 minutes of online video daily in 2019; the only two countries where online video exceeds 100 minutes a day. However, by 2021, Zenith expects the U.S., the U.K., Canada, India and Mexico to join them.
From 2013 to 2018, the amount of time people spend watching online video around the world has grown 32% per year, according to Zenith. Contributing factors have included improvements in display sizes and quality of mobile devices, faster mobile data connections and the rise of connected TV sets.
“The consumption of online video is growing rapidly, and the average person will spend half as much time viewing online video as they spend viewing conventional television this year,” said Jonathan Barnard, head of forecasting at Zenith. “This fast-expanding supply of audiences is fuelling rapid growth in demand from advertisers, making online video the fastest-growing digital channel by advertising expenditure.”
As a result, Zenith estimates a growth in advertising expenditure in the U.S. from $45 billion in 2019 to $61 billion by 2021, at an average rate of growth of 18%. Meanwhile, television adspend is projected to drop from $183 billion to $180 billion over the same period.
For more information on the Zenith report, visit www.zenithmedia.com.
