GroupM: 3.1% Ad Growth in 2015

GroupM has downgraded its U.S. and global ad spending forecasts for 2014, reinforcing a view that the ad business is getting tougher. But the media buyer sees a small pickup in 2015.

In the U.S., GroupM sees ad spending growing 3.1% to $170 billion, down from a mid-year forecast of 3.4%. For 2015, GroupM expects spending growth to hit 3.9% in 2015, with digital making the biggest contribution.

Globally, spending is forecast to rise 3.9% in 2014 to $513 billion. At midyear, GroupM had said it expected a 4.5% increase. For 2015, GroupM forecasts a 4.9% gain that would bring global spending to $538 billion.

Digital media is taking a bigger part of ad budgets, GroupM said, gaining about two points of share every year. Digital’s share was 24.7% in 2014 and is expected to rise to 27.6%, GroupM said.

GroupM said that for the first time, TV's share might be falling from a high of 43%.

Read more at B&C here.

Jon Lafayette

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.