Digital spending to fuel slower media growth - PwC

*Global spending growth seen accelerating in 2012-2013

*Digital growth seen taking share from non-digital forms

*US digital ad growth seen growing to 25 pct of total

By Gina Keating

LOS ANGELES, June 16 (Reuters) - Global spending on entertainment and media will reach $1.6 trillion in 2013 at a relatively sedate 2.7 percent annual average growth rate with growth in digital content offsetting declines in traditional media revenue models, PriceWaterhouseCoopers said on Tuesday.

The migration to digital entertainment will accelerate as companies seek efficiencies in advertising and distribution in a downturn and consumers want greater control and higher value, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers' Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2009-2013, released on Tuesday.

The report also showed declines in consumer and ad spending in some areas through 2011, with healthy growth returning in 2012-2013, and media companies struggling to attract revenue from fragmented and mobile audiences.

The U.S. entertainment and media market will ultimately grow at a 1.2 percent average annual rate to $495 billion in 2013, with Internet access and Internet ad sales leading the way, the five-year forecast for the media sector showed.

Growth of digital segments will sharply outpace the rest of the industry during the downturn and recovery, with digital revenues taking share from non-digital, the report showed.

Revenue declines throughout the forecast period were forecast for TV advertising, consumer and educational book and magazine publishing, recorded music, and newspaper publishing.

Overall U.S. advertising spending was expected to decline by a 1.7 percent annual average to $174 billion in 2013 from $189 billion in 2008, while global advertising in 2011 will be 13.3 percent lower than in 2008, the report said.

"The current decline in revenues is not because of declining demand," Bill Cobourn of PricewaterhouseCoopers' media and entertainment practice said. "In fact, demand for

(entertainment and media) appears to be increasing."

Mobile and digital platforms globally will expand at an average annual rate of 12.2 percent to reach $387 billion by 2013 while non-digital forms grow at a 1.2 percent annual average, the report said.

U.S. digital spending will rise to 25 percent of total industry revenues in 2013, from 17 percent in 2008, the report showed. Advertisers also will shift toward new media, boosting Internet advertising to 19 percent of U.S. advertising by 2013, from 13 percent in 2008, the report showed.

(you to read more at http://www.reuters.com/article/technology-media-telco-SP/idUSN1524587120090616)