The Global Media Intelligence Report is a concise, detailed compilation of data and insights about internet users’ traditional and digital media usage in 43 key markets worldwide. With very few exceptions, this 2021 edition covers the same range of metrics we featured in 2020, and the consistency of GWI’s methodology enables us to offer precise year-over-year (YoY) comparisons.

In the US, Hulu is the fastest-growing subscription streamer on connected TV devices, with the number of households that watch it via those devices rising by 53% between January 2020 and June 2021.

Following an announcement from YouTube Premium that they've hit 50 million subscribers worldwide, we have updated our US forecast to reflect the platforms uptick. We now forecast YouTube Premium will hit 29.5 million US subscribers by year-end 2021.

A semblance of normalcy will return in 2021 after a media-saturated 2020, fueled by the pandemic. But while media time will reset somewhat this year, digital’s influence will continue to grow.

Before the pandemic, linear addressable TV ad spending was soaring in the US, with annual growth rates of 50.7% in 2018 and 36.5% in 2019. But that spending increased by just 7.3% in 2020, amid advertising budget cuts in the TV industry.

“Women hold up half the sky,” former Chinese leader Mao Zedong famously said. More than fifty years on, women in China are doing so online, driving digital trends and fast becoming a cohort that marketers ignore at their peril.

Fifty-seven percent of digital advertisers are planning to increase their ad spend in H1 2021, and connected TV (CTV) and over-the-top (OTT), in particular, are expected to see gains, according to a recent Verizon Media study.