In this week’s Week in Charts, social media to dominate media spending, AI slop comes for TikTok kids content, and South Korea has highest daily YouTube viewing.
To have Week in Charts delivered to your inbox, you can sign up to the newsletter here.
Quote of the Week
Number of the Week
Charts of the Week
Social Media and Digital to Make Up 80 Percent of Ad Spend on Media Content by 2030
Global ad spend on media content is projected to reach $947 billion by 2030, with social media and other digital channels expected to make up more than 80 percent of the total, according to forecasts from WPP Media. Meanwhile global TV spend is expected to decline by 10 percent over the next five years, making up 11 percent of ad spend on media content in 2030.
Over Half of TikTok Kids Content Identified as ‘AI Slop’
More than half of kids content on TikTok is ‘AI slop’, according to research from AI video platform Kapwing, making it the most slop-intensive category on the short-form video app. The study also found that 97 percent of videos tagged #cartoonkids were AI slop. “The dangers of automated content for children are not new, but the scale at which children are being targeted with slop — ranging from nonsense ‘brainrot’ to dangerously inaccurate songs and lessons — is staggering,” said Liam Curtis, Growth & SEO: Content Manager at Kapwing.
South Korea, Japan and US Have Highest Levels of Daily YouTube Viewing
South Korea has the highest average daily YouTube usage of the 15 markets tracked by Digital i, with South Korean YouTube users spending an average 161.5 minutes per day on the video service. The lowest rate of viewing was found in Italy, whose YouTube users spend less than one-third of the average time spent by South Korean users.
Social Media is Main Gateway for News Finds Reuters Institute
Social media is the main gateway for people to access news, according to the latest Digital News Report from the Reuters Institute. The survey found that social media was the main access point for 43 percent of people under 35, with just 15 percent mainly going direct to news sources. Social media was also the main gateway for 30 percent of people over 35, but 25 percent of this group still said they go to publishers directly as their main way of coming across news.
The Week in Stocks
Agencies
The only riser on our list of agency stocks this week, Stagwell’s share price saw a slight increase after the agency network launched its agentic media operating system, The Media Machine.
TV
Disney is the only TV stock on our list to rise this week. The entertainment giant was given a bump on Thursday ahead of the release of Toy Story 5.
Publishers
Shares in Thomson Reuters are down six percent this week, and have fallen more than 40 percent over the last six months.
Ad Tech
Magnite is the only ad tech stock on our list to increase over the past week, rising for four days straight after launching its agentic coordination layer, Magnite Orchestration.
Tech
Microsoft stock is down six percent as the software giant’s shares come under pressure from AI spending concerns.
