Advertising markets in the UK have yet to show substantive signs of recovery and Q1 2002 has shown modest year on year falls in advertising across a number of media sectors. This is according to SMG, which operates businesses across the television, radio, press, outdoor and cinema media.
Reporting its year-end financial results this morning (see
SMG Profits Hit By Ad Downturn), the company said that the Q1 2002 declines are much less severe that those experienced in Q2 and Q3 2001 when the downturn in advertising was at its most acute.
SMG says that the market is becoming more predictable and that media buying activity is reverting to more traditional patterns. “In particular, radio, as the medium most able to take short-term money, is showing the first signs of recovery,” the group said.
Zenith Media this week forecast that real-terms advertising growth in the UK would not return until 2004, when it would be just 0.9% (see UK Will Not See Real Terms Ad Growth Until 2004, Say Zenith Forecasts).
