Adults set to spend 8.5 hours a day consuming media this year, most of it on smartphones

According to eMarketer: "The growth of mobile is the key to this shift, as it continues to drive both digital growth and overall growth of time spent with all media."

It was also discovered that mobile will account for over half the time spent online.

This backs up research by Weve, unveiled in October 2013, which found that 46 per cent of adults between the age of 18-34 cited their mobile devices as becoming their most important screen, ahead of the 27 per cent who said it was TV.

“It’s unsurprising that mobile is overtaking TV when it comes to media consumption in 2014,” James Briscoe, managing director of Unique Digital, told The Drum.

“Evidently, online outreach has more to offer consumers, as they can be part of and determine the success of a campaign in real time. Brands are therefore finding themselves at a fork in the road. So much of our experience happens online and all the evidence suggests that digital campaigns are the driving force, with mobile devices starting to play a huge part in driving sales and brand awareness. Dual screening takes the conversation from the living room to the rest of the world and 2014 is the year to really test its profitability.”

Duel screening was taken into account by the report, with an hour spent watching TV while on social media or playing games on a smartphone counting as both an hour of TV and an hour of digital.

The report led eMarketer to suggest that smartphones are the most important contributor when it comes to online as social networking, mobile games and texting are all time-intensive.