Mobile, the big killer of traditional TV

Mobile is killing off TV and traditional media as we know it. Even one of our biggest media owners mentioned to me this last week, that video consumption will consume all. In the US where there is better bandwidth than in Australia, consumers are estimated to be watching four movies a week on their mobile devices.

In bedrooms across the world more people watch content on their tablets more than on their TV.

Naturally, here with the poor mobile data products we have available there is consumer frustration as demand for video content free of traditional boundaries and complexity is what consumers crave. Motorola tells us that tablet users are described as “super users” who watch more 6.7 hours of movies a week versus the average non-tablet owner.

Three quarters of consumers worldwide store content on devices to watch at their convenience. Over 60% of 16-24-year-olds multi-task following a social conversation while watch content, showing there is more opportunity to engage youth with deeper embedded social mixed with content.

TV ads are dying, being killed off by mobile. It is predicted by 2017, marketing spend on Google and Facebook alone will eclipse spend on TV. Advertisers want precision targeted ads, not the broad blunt instrument of TV. Audiences are down on FTA and satellite TV and their migration to VOD and streaming services is not going to stop.

This is not the domain of the young, with 50-year-old plus adding more hours of their week to digital media consumption, digital is also claiming a disproportionate share of most affluent and educated consumers.

Can TV defend itself with lucrative sports deals, or a Channel 7 strategy led by Clive Dickens whose top priority is the “second screen” with TV in your pocket approach?

 Whatever happens the competition for mobile consumption is on and its going to kill that big screen in your living room pretty soon.

Fi Bendall is the managing director of Bendalls Group, a team of highly trained digital specialists, i-media subject matter experts and developers.