Mobile Internet use will account for 26 per cent of global media consumption in 2019, up from 19 per cent in 2016, according to Zenith’s Media Consumption Forecasts, published today.

People around the world will spend an average of 122 minutes a day accessing the mobile Internet via browsers and apps, an amount that has grown from just ten minutes a day since 2010.

This is the third annual edition of the Media Consumption Forecasts, which surveys changing patterns of media consumption since 2010, and forecasts how the amount of time people allocate to different media will change between 2017 and 2019, in 71 countries across the world.

The mobile boost to media consumption is slowing mobile Internet consumption increased at an average rate of 44 per cent a year between 2010 and 2016, driven by the spread of mobile devices, improvements in technology and greater availability of mobile-adapted content.

Some of this extra consumption time was cannibalised from traditional media, but the spread of mobile technology has given a boost to overall media consumption by allowing users to access more media, in more places, and at more times than ever before. The average person spent 456 minutes consuming media in 2016, up from 411 minutes in 2010 – that’s an average increase of 2% a year.

Now that mobile devices have taken a central role in so many people’s lives, the growth in mobile Internet use is slowing, and with it the growth in media consumption overall, notes Zenith report.

“Mobile Internet use grew 25 per cent in 2016, down from 43 per cent growth in 2015, and we expect it to grow 17 per cent in 2017. After 2.7 per cent growth in 2016, we expect overall media consumption to be essentially static in 2017, then grow by less than 1 per cent a year to 2019,” notes the report.