Consumers Spend More Time With Paid Content

US consumers last year -- for the first time -- spent more time with media that they paid for than with advertising-supported media, according to the annual Communications Industry Forecast from private equity firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson. In fact, advertising became the smallest of the four major sectors tracked by VSS in 2008 -- a first since it began tracking the industry in 1986. VSS also projects that advertising will only return to growth mode in 2011. Total spending on communications, including advertising, consumer spending and other, rose 2.3 percent in 2008 to $882.6 billion, VSS found -- the sector's slowest growth rate since 2001. The report projects communications spending to decline 1 percent this year—the first drop since the 2001 recession. Overall, for the 2009-2013 forecast period, communications spending will grow 3.6 percent per year to over $1 trillion, making communications the third fastest-growing sector of the U.S. economy over that period, up from the fourth, VSS said.