Spending on media to increase to $214b

The overall spending on China's entertainment and media sector is set to grow at an annual compound rate of 10.9 percent through 2018 to US$214 billion, while advertising spending will surge to 11.9 percent, a latest research shows.

By 2018, digital will take up 55 percent of total advertising revenue, riding on the potential of China's increasingly wealthy and web-connected middle class, PricewaterhouseCoopers said in its Entertainment and Media Outlook (2014-2018) yesterday.

The research also shows China overtaking Japan as the world's second-largest entertainment and media market behind the US in 2016.

"China's rapid growth in the media and entertainment sector is a reflection of the consumption power of a growing middle class that is both the target of increasing brand activity and the consumers of various forms of entertainment," said Marcel Fenez, PwC's global leader in entertainment and media.

Spending on Internet advertising in the country is set to reach US$30.6 billion by 2018, taking up 47.3 percent of total ad expenditure.

Newspapers will suffer the biggest drop in advertising spending, accounting for 16 percent of total ad expenditure by 2018, below the 20 percent in 2013.