DUBAI: Analytics firm YouGov recently released its global media outlook report for 2022 covering 17 markets.
The report takes a deep dive into four aspects of media consumption: Watching, listening, reading and social.
Globally, media consumption remains high with websites/apps (42 percent) being the most consumed media.
“Globally, there remains a high stickiness (those who claim to have maintained or increased their consumption of each media type in the past 12 months and are likely to maintain or consume more in the next 12 months) towards media such as streaming music and videos, radio, podcasts, websites and apps and online and offline print (media),” Zafar Shah, account director at YouGov, told Arab News.
“However, the main growth drivers (those who claim to have maintained or increased their consumption of each media type in the last 12 months and are likely to do more in the next 12 months) when it comes to media consumption in 2022 lie in streaming music and videos, apps and social media,” he added.
Although watching live TV is ahead of video streaming, a higher proportion of global consumers plan to increase their consumption of streamed video next year across all age groups.
Those aged 18-44 are twice as likely to increase their consumption of streamed video than those aged 55+ with India, UAE, Mexico and Indonesia having the highest proportion of viewers planning to increase their use of video streaming services in the next year.
Pandemic-imposed lockdowns gave a big boost to video-on-demand services followed by some churn. However, YouGov’s data shows that consumers show more stickiness to VOD than other types of paid-for content services with 36 percent currently subscribing to and intending to stick with paying for VOD services in the coming year.
In terms of audio, radio was hit hard by the pandemic, but that does not mean audio is dead: 59 percent claimed to have listened to podcasts in the past year and 22 percent plan to stream more music in the next year, with that number going up to 38 percent for Generation Z audiences.
In fact, podcasts are the only media with a higher projected annual consumption in the next 12 months compared to the previous year.
The countries with audiences most likely to increase their music streaming and podcast consumption include India, Mexico, Indonesia and the UAE.
It is no surprise that social media usage has increased across the world. Globally, 87 percent claimed to have interacted with social media in the past year; one third of adults increased their use of social media in the past year while 40 percent interacted with social media at the same level.
This behavior is expected to continue with nearly half (47 percent) expecting to maintain the same level of interaction and 24 percent planning to increase their use of social media in the next year.
While consumption remains high, the social media landscape has changed over the years due to big tech controversies and the popularity of new players.
“While social media consumption growth is largely expected to be driven by the Middle East and Asian markets, we actually see a decrease in usage for platforms such as Facebook in markets like the US and UK year-on-year,” Shah said.
Usage and growth figures vary by platform, he said. For instance, the growth of short-form video and other formats by newer players such as TikTok and Snapchat has challenged older players such as Meta and Twitter.
“While some (platforms) have been impacted more by controversy, others have benefited from as a result of macro-environment changes like the pandemic lockdown and restrictions,” Shah said.
Younger audiences such as Generation Zs (39 percent) are most likely to increase their social media consumption, while older audiences such as those over the age of 55 (12 percent) are least likely to consume more.
Commenting on the differences between advanced markets such as the UK and US versus the UAE, Shah said: “The UK and US are fairly saturated markets when it comes to the growth potential of various media.”
“For instance, while streaming music has reported growth potential of 18 percent in the UK and 28 percent in the US, it is considerably higher in the UAE at 55 percent.”
Similarly, he added, both video streaming and podcasts are expected to grow in the UK and US but to a much lower degree than in the UAE.
The biggest difference perhaps is in the consumption of traditional media in the UAE. Even as digital media continues to grow, traditional channels enjoy relatively high consumption rates in the Emirates.
Shah said: “The stickiness of traditional media like live TV is fairly high in the UAE and unlike other developed markets, traditional media such as TV, radio and print are still seen as growth drivers in the UAE — in most cases twice as much as they are in the UK and US.”
