It’s official, TV is losing out to the internet TV is on the decline. Online magazine eMarketer figures show, that for the first time ever, UK consumers are spend less time watching TV than they are using digital media.
It’s no surprise to us, we’ve been highlighting it for some time, but it’s the growth of mobile devices being cited as the main reason for this change. According to the figures UK adults spend more than eight and a half hours each day consuming media. This breaks down into three hours and 41 minutes online via a mobile device, laptop or desktop computer and three hours and 15 minutes watching television. Some of these activities may happen simultaneously, such as ‘tweeting’ about the programme they are watching, but each activity is still recorded separately.
With the rise of smartphone and tablet use it was only a matter of time before TV started to miss out. That being said, television programming viewed on a mobile device could “count” as time spent on a digital device, but this too reflects a change in how new technology is influencing how traditional media is viewed.
This report from emarketer backs up our own predictions, recently featured on The Global Legal Post, that 2014 is the year to go mobile.
It’s vital that law firms across the globe start to think about how this news will affect their marketing spend. It’s dangerous to sit there and think that nothing needs to change and that your clients will always just ‘be there’. That’s not always going to be the case and if you refuse to acknowledge that then you’ll find your more adaptable competitors will be ahead of you in no time at all.
You need to sit down with your partners and marketing team and look at how you’re going to be part of this mobile revolution. You need to start adapting your websites. You need to start engaging with social media and above all you need to start looking at how 21st century clients want to engage with their law firm. If you don’t then they’ll find someone who gives them what they want, how they want and when they want.

Dez Derry is CEO of mmadigital