Back in January, TNS Media Intelligence was looking for a 2.6% overall gain in US advertising revenues. It no longer thinks that less-than-lofty goal is attainable, and has lowered it's prediction to 1.7%. That will be the result of a scant 1.2% gain for the first half of the year, amplified by a 2.3% pick-up in the second half.
TNS's President/CEO Steven J. Fredericks said, "The advertising market has moved onto a slower track than we thought possible just six months ago. We expect the overall pace of activity will pick up slightly in the second half of the year. However, it still appears that total measured expenditures will post their smallest annual gain since the 2001 advertising recession as marketers continue to incrementally scale back their allocations to off-line media in favor of less expensive digital alternatives."
Feeling the most pain, red-digit pain, will be spot TV (-5.5%), newspapers (-2.9%), BTB magazines (-1.5%) and radio (-0.3%). Internet is the only significant gainer (16%), but other outlets are predicted to do OK, such as cable network (5.9%), outdoor (4.6%), consumer/Sunday magazines (4.5%), and Hispanic media (3.7%). Expected to experience modest gains are network TV (1.3%) and syndicated TV (1.2%).
