Advertising spend is set to remain the main growth driver for the CEE media industry over the next few years.
However, according to Clemens Schwaiger, global head of media at the management consulting firm Arthur D. Little, within that online advertising and online consumer spend will be responsible for all total value growth.
In a report by Arthur D. Little entitled Media Flow of Funds, ADL Insights – Central Eastern Europe, ad spend in the region, or specifically Poland, Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic, is forecast to grow from €4.4 billion in 2016 to €5.6 billion in 2020.
Consumer spend, however, will only increase from €6.2 billion to €6.4 billion over the same period.
Within these totals, online advertising is forecast to grow from €1.6 billion to €2.9 billion and online consumer from €0.8 billion to €1.3 billion.
Although most CEE markets are below average in the online share of overall revenues, the Czech Republic ranked number three in Europe, after the UK and Russia, in 2016.
TV and video are set to remain the largest segments in CEE, growing from €5.3 billion in 2016 to €5.9 billion in 2020.