The average Briton spent more than 53 hours a week consuming media in 2000, making it by far the largest use of people's leisure time - and will be dedicating more than 60 hours a week to the media by 2010, according to a report published today.

Media usage has increased steadily since 1985, when the average British consumer spent "just" 43 hours a week devouring media. According to the report, published by analysts Screen Digest and ABN Amro, most of the increase has occurred over the past three years, with the rapid adoption of online and mobile services driving average media usage from 47.9 hours a week in 1998 to 53.5 in 2000.

Apart from working and sleeping, the consumption of TV, radio, books, magazines, newspapers, the internet, mobile phones, computer games, music, cinema, video and DVD is now the "largest consumer of time for the vast majority of the population".

Broadcast media represents by far the largest portion - some 87 per cent in fact. This is because both TV and radio are cheap, available to all and can be consumed at the same time as doing something else.

The printed word accounts for a remarkably small proportion of media usage, with the average person spending just 90 minutes reading books, magazines and newspapers every week in 2000.

Meanwhile, the total amount spent on media goods and services is forecast to increase from the £34.7bn spent in 2000 to at least £56bn in 2010. Consumers spent just £7bn on media in 1985, when newspapers represented the largest segment of the market, accounting for 24 per cent of media expenditure. Next came TV, where the combined cost of the licence fee and TV sets meant that it accounted for 20 per cent of media spend. Books and music accounted for a further 15 per cent and 8 per cent.

However, over the past 15 years there has been a big change in the make-up of media spend - traditional media such as books, magazines and newspapers have declined in importance and been replaced by services such as mobile phones and pay-TV. Coming out of nowhere, mobile spend represented 30 per cent of the total by 2000.

In the future, TV is forecast to continue increasing its share of media spending, from 21 per cent in 2000 to 26 per cent in 2010. Online will also claim an increasing portion of the market, with its share rising from 2 per cent to 5 per cent, while mobile spend is expected to stabilise at around 31 per cent over the next decade.

Email Sathnam Sanghera at sathnam.sanghera@ft.com
or see www.screendigest.com