Magna forecasts decline in ad market

Magna has issued a media outlook for 2010, forecasting a lesser decline in the advertising market than it had earlier anticipated.

Citing improvement on the industrial production front, Magna improved its forecast slightly, reporting that it now anticipates normalised advertising revenues to decline 1.3 per cent next year. Earlier this year, Magna indicated that it expected a 2.1 per cent drop in 2010.

All told, Magna expects suppliers to generate $159 billion in advertising revenue next year, as the economy begins its recovery from four straight quarters of recession.

Among the sectors looking to show marked improvement in 2010 are national TV, which Magna predicts will grow 1.3 per cent, to $32.7 billion, and online/digital, which is expected to improve 1.1 per cent to $5.64 billion. Magna also believes that national magazines will begin to stanch the bleeding, dipping 6.2 per cent to $14.6 billion, versus a 19.2 per cent decline this year ($15.5 billion).

Network and satellite radio will also get back into gear, as suppliers are expected to invest $1.08 billion in the medium, a dip of 0.9 per cent from this year's $1.09 billion spend. (Per Magna, national radio will close out the year down 10.6 percent.) Magna's analysis excluded political and Olympic dollars.