Spending on TV advertising rises after five-year dip

In its latest outlook on the advertising market, media services firm Zenith Optimedia upgraded its global predictions and said there were "occasional signs of surprising strength" in developed regions.

The group said the UK television market, which it said has been shrinking since 2005, was up seven per cent in the first three months of 2010 and would grow at least 16 per cent in the second quarter.

Television advertising was said to have suffered less than other mediums in the slump as viewing tends to rise in recessions because it offers consumers a relatively cheap form of entertainment.

While global television spend fell 6.7 per cent last year, the group said the format's market share had increased from 38.1 per cent in 2008 to 39.4 per cent.

Zenith Optimedia said it expects this trend to continue, reaching 40.6 per cent in 2012, as spending increases in developing markets, where television is a more dominant medium than in developed countries.

The internet continued its rise despite the recession and the report said the downturn could actually have accelerated the move away from traditional media "by focusing advertisers' minds on the importance of measurable return on investment".

Its share of the global advertising market increased from 10.5 per cent in 2008 to 12.6 per cent last year, overtaking magazines for the first time. It is expected to account for 17.1 per cent in 2012.

Newspapers and magazines "clearly suffered the most from the downturn", the report said.

By 2012, Zenith Optimedia predicts newspapers' share of the world's ad market to have sunk to 19.4 per cent, from 25.1 per cent in 2008, while magazines will slip to 8.6 per cent from 11.6 per cent.

Across all mediums the report forecast global ad expenditure to grow 2.2 per cent in 2010, up from its previous estimate of 0.9 per cent and compared to a 9.8 per cent fall in 2009.

"Confidence in the global economic recovery, while tentative, continues to grow, and this improvement has been apparent in ad markets across the world," it said.

"Ad expenditure is accelerating in bullish developing markets, while in the developed world the downturn is coming to an end more quickly than expected."

The developed world – North America, Western Europe and Japan – markets tumbled 12.1 per cent last year, but were now "stabilising".

Meanwhile, developing countries in Central and Eastern Europe fell very steeply in 2009, but were forecast to rebound to a 5.7 per cent growth this year.

Other markets in the Middle East, Latin America and Asia Pacific, excluding Japan, were said to have been "more robust" in the downturn, with predictions of 4.7 per cent, 9.3 per cent and 10 per cent growth respectively this year.