1. Digitization has increased book sales. Expenditure on electronic books almost doubled each year in 2006-2010 but still amounts to only 3% of global book sales.
Forecasts however predict that revenues from e-books in 2008–2014 will go from less than 1% to nearly 9% in the five largest European markets, from less than 1% to around 17% in the US and from 2% to around 8% in Japan.
2. The internet has become the second preferred choice for news consumption after television.
Print remains the main revenue driver for newspaper publishers. Although digital advertising income has increased, it amounted to only 7% globally in 2010.
3. On average, 70% of recorded music consumed in the USA, UK, France and Germany (four of the largest music markets worldwide) is consumed through the internet or other digital platforms.
However, revenues from digital sources in these countries account for only 35% of the total of recorded music sales.
4. Digital spending (acquisition of media products in digital format) tripled from 2006 to 2010 worldwide and is growing steadily, although it still represents a low share of global sales.
Recorded music has the biggest share, with 30% of its global sales being digital in 2010.
5. The European publishing industry is the largest in the world and encompasses a total of 83 472 firms.
The largest sub-sectors in terms of number of firms are book publishers (31 813 or 38.1%) and journal and magazine publishers (18 975 or 22.7%). Newspapers publishers is the smallest sub-sector, with only 9 006 firms in the EU27 (less than 11% of the total). Here to read more.
