Recession fears spark revised TV ad forecasts

Fears of a double-dip recession have caused some advertisers to reduce their spending and forecasters have downwardly revised their projections accordingly.

ZenithOptimedia says that the industry has not yet seen the sharp budget cuts and cancelled campaigns that marked the start of the last advertising downturn, but has lowered its July forecasts because of a slower than expected economic recovery in developed markets.

It still expects year-on-year ad revenues to be in positive territory, but has lowered the year-on-year growth figure to 3.6%, which would take the global total to US$466 billion. Fourth quarter growth has been trimmed from the 5.9% predicted in July to 5.3%.
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TV will, however, remain the growth driver of ad revenues. Zenith forecasts that the medium will account for 46% of all new ad dollars between 2010 and 2013 and its share of the overall pie will increase from 39.8% in 2010 to 40.5% in 2013.