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Middle East & Africa: TV advertising revenues to top US$10 billion

New research from Informa Telecoms & Media shows that global TV advertising revenues will climb by 5.2% in 2014 to reach US$171 billion (£106 billion). This follows a 1.9% increase expected for 2013. The rise in 2014 will be driven by improving consumer and corporate confidence along with the summer's World Cup finals in Brazil.

Net TV advertising revenues

(US$ billion)

2012

2013

2014

2018

Asia Pacific

39.2

40.8

43.1

52.1

Europe

33.9

33.7

34.8

40.1

Americas

79.9

81.2

85.6

103.7

Middle East and Africa

5.9

6.3

7.0

10.6

Global total

158.9

162.0

170.5

206.4

Source: Informa Telecoms & Media

As part of this global study, Informa has taken a particularly close look at the advertising markets of the Middle East and Africa (MEA). This research has found that the MEA generated TV advertising revenues of US$5.9 billion in 2012, a figure that is expected to reach US$6.3 billion in 2013. With a CAGR of 10.2% expected for the 2013-2018 period, annual revenues will top US$10 billion by 2018.

Adam Thomas, Informa’s Media Research Manager, says: “The difficulty that has faced the MEA for many years is that most of its channel ratings measurement has been very old school. They are usually based on interviews and tend to inspire little confidence as to their reliability. At a very basic level, this makes it very difficult to assess whether advertising investment is reaching audience levels that justify the outlay.”

But, according to Thomas, the situation is changing: “For now, this negative perception continues to hold back the sector from greater growth. But the launch of more sophisticated people-meter technology in the UAE, for example, is a positive early step to address this. I’m expecting that this movement towards more advanced measurement will continue over the next few years and our forecasts assume revenues will grow as a result.”

About the report Global TV and OTT Video Advertising - 6th edition
The report (www.informatandm.com/globaltvadvertising) includes important illustrative statistics and reliable forecasts to 2018 on a global and regional scale, with the TV figures broken out for 69 countries worldwide, including the lucrative Pan-Arab sector, plus 13 countries for the OTT Video Advertising segment.