Media forecasts for 2018: what lies ahead?

As we step forward into 2018, here is a snapshot of the latest UK forecasts from some of the media industry’s most respected forecasters.

Collating these forecasts into an average suggests that 2018 is expected to see 3.1% growth over the year in the UK, with initial forecasts for 2019 and 2020 at very healthy levels.

GroupM states that UK advertising is set to see a ninth successive year of growth, and the UK will remain one of the fastest-growing media markets in 2018 with a 4.8% increase predicted to take total investment to £19.8 billion.

Zenith are less bullish, suggesting that a slowing economy, gathering inflation, and political uncertainty over the mid-year elections and Brexit negotiations have all contributed to a sharp slowdown in UK adspend during 2017 and although forecasts are higher for 2018 they are expected to be around 1.8% growth, considerably lower than GroupM’s levels.

The initial outlook from Zenith for 2019 and 2020 looks very promising with predicted growth of 4.1% and 5.1% respectively.

Subscribers to the Media Landscape module of Mediatel Connected can see how these forecasts have been amended up or down over the past few forecast releases.

In addition subscribers can see the forecasts by medium for press, TV, radio, cinema, online and outdoor, split by each forecaster where available.

For more information about access to Media Landscape please contact help@mediatel.co.uk or call 020 7420 3252