Time spent with online media to overtake TV globally in 2018

The online media time, for the first time, will overtake time spent on television globally in 2018, predicted a report from WPP's media arm GroupM.

Titled the 'State of Digital', the report said that consumers will spend an average 9.73 hours with media this year, up from 9.68 hours in 2017.

Online media will have a 38 per cent share of the total engagement against the 37 per cent share of television, according to a report published on www.livemint.com.

The findings are based on consumers' time spent with each media format, globally, and average time spent with media overall.

The increase in the online media time also supports the ongoing boom in the e-commerce transactions. GroupM stated that the online transactions will witness 15% growth in 2018 to touch $2.442 trillion up from $2.105 trillion transactions in 2017.

In line with the increase in time spent on various online platforms, the report further noted that tech giant Google and social media platform Facebook continue to aid the digital growth globally. While Google search is critical for brands, video streaming platform YouTube is increasingly becoming crucial for scaled premium video.