Over the next five years, consumers could pay more for the media they want as advertisers switch their budgets from traditional media to direct marketing, according to Veronis Suhler Stevenson's latest “Communications Industry Forecast,” USA Today reported Monday.

The annual report should inspire video game, cable and satellite TV companies as well as Internet service providers (ISPs). However, for those ad-dependent media including broadcast TV, radio stations, consumer magazines, and especially newspapers, things could be complicated, with the report characterising current struggles as a “temporary blip in an anemic economy.”

“You could call (2008) a tipping point, with consumers poised for the first time to spend more on media than advertisers will,” James Rutherfurd, VSS managing director stated in the report, according to USA Today.

Spending by both consumers and advertisers contributed about half of the US$876.3 billion that went to media and communications (excluding phone connections) last year, USA Today reported. The figures, including spending by marketers and institutions on business-to-business media, will reach $1.18 trillion in 2012.

An average consumer will spend $1,078 on media in 2012, up 26.6 percent from 2007, while 41 percent of that will go to cable and satellite TV providers, up from 39 percent last year, according to PQ Media.

However, media usage does not grow in accordance with the money spent. A typical person will spend 3,496 hours with media in 2012, only slightly up by less than one percent, according to USA Today.

Not surprisingly, zippier media are on the rise. By 2009, people will allocate more time to video games than to consumer books, and in 2010, games will surpass consumer magazines, according to VSS predictions.