UK Adspend Drops 6.8% In July
Total UK adspend was 6.8% down year on year in July, according to ACNielsen data analysed by ABN Amro – worse than the 4.9% decline the broker had forecast. As expected the bulk of the decline came from the television sector, where revenue was down 11.8%, although this is slightly better than the predicted fall of 12.0%.
| UK Advertising Growth | ||||||
| Medium | July 2001F | July 2001A | Difference (% pt) | July 2000A | Q2 2001A | Q3 2001F |
| Television | -12.0 | -11.8 | 0.2 | 5.3 | -13.1 | -3.7 |
| Radio | -5.6 | -5.3 | 0.3 | 10.4 | -13.7 | -5.0 |
| Magazines | -2.0 | -0.8 | 1.2 | 9.2 | 0.1 | -1.0 |
| Newspapers | -1.0 | -6.1 | -5.1 | 1.9 | -13.0 | 1.1 |
| TOTAL (Net) | -4.9 | -6.8 | -1.9 | 5.2 | -10.6 | -0.9 |
| Source: ACNielsen, ABN Amro estimates | ||||||
Note: TV and Radio data adjusted to industry sources where available; newspaper data excludes classifieds.
Analysts say that August, whilst generally a weak month for advertising volumes, will be a significant indicator of the current state of the market it as August 2000 was the first month last year to show negative adspend growth.
ABN’s full-year forecast for by TV of -4.3% now looks unlikely given the latest media buyer figures for ITV.
These Q2 and July figures are poorer than Q1 growth shown by Advertising Association statistics (see Forecasts). The July decline of 6.8% also shows a poorer performance than is being experienced in France, where total main media spend was down by 4.3% during the same month (see Forecasts).