MFB 2014: Romanian media market expected to remain stable in 2014

Romanian media market is expected to remain stable in 2014, after the continuous decrease posted since 2009 and a flat evolution in 2013, Initiative’s Media Fact Book 2014 estimates.

From 2007 to 2012, all traditional media channels lost budgets to  online and, last year, TV and radio managed to keep a stable evolution compared to 2012. From the total media investments, TV attracted 63%, while radio – 6%. With its continuous growth, online reached to a 15% market share in 2013, while OOH and Print continued to drop, to 9% and 6% (down from 10% and 7% in 2012).

TV remained the main ad channel

TV remained the main advertising channel, attracting most budgets, powered by almost 60 monitored channels and an average viewing time of 5.7 hours per day among the commercial target (18-49 y.o, urban).

Last year, the TV market remained flat compared to 2012, to a value of Euro 193M, and is expected to maintain at the same level in 2014.

Internet – constant growth, advertising budgets followed the trend

Internet’s penetration was, in 2013, of 57.9% among 16-74 y.o. population, with almost 53% Romanian households connected to internet.

Romanian digital ad market evolves rapidly into new new platforms, devices and formats available, which represents both a challenge and opportunity for advertisers.

Video advertising gained important momentum after the launch of the Romanian localized YouTube, and Facebook is still the most important social network, with almost 7M Romanian users.

Mobile – on the wave

Mobile penetration reached, according to an Ancom recent report, 113.9%, with 22.6 million active SIMs at the end of 2013 and 9.4M Romanian users having subscriptions.

In Romania, smartphones penetration is estimated at  28%, with those devices mainly adopted by people aged 25-34 y.o. Mobile consumption habits are evolving as mobile devices offer access to various content and multimedia features and smartphones become integrated in consumers’ daily lives

Print continued its decline

Ad budgets attracted by print continued to decline in 2013, with print duplicating online content and loosing buyers and readers. The problems with the distribution continued last year for printed press and insolvency of some companies in this area determined the collapse of print distribution and a decrease of the audience.

When it comes of preferred titles, tabloids remained the most read and were also the publications that generated the highest revenues. Last year, printed press chose either to manage the ad sales internally (Adevarul Holding), or to close important titles (Mediafax), or even to merge in order to to consolidate market position (Burda and Sanoma Hearst).

Radio – revenues comparable to 2010

Radio stagnated last year when it comes of attracted advertising budgets and posted revenues comparable to 2012.

Last year, radios made efforts to consolidate or gain market shares and used for this  active marketing campaigns, events, concerts and radio and social media integrated packages.

OOH – legislation postponed, inventory increased

Romanian OOH law was vetoed, so its implementation was postponed for October 2015. Meanwhile, the outdoor inventory in Bucharest increased, mainly due to independent local investors who invested in expanding their networks.

Digital outdoor expanded the TV-screen network and digital indoor modernized the LCD network. The OOH monitoring system, which started in Apr 2012, continued to be improved in 2013 and created the premises of launching also an OOH frequency study.

Cinema – slightly ascending

Cinema market was, last year, on a slightly ascending trend, due to number of admissions. The high number of 3D block-busters, the international recognition of the Romanian cinematography, keeping the same ticket prices as in 2012 as well as the special ticketing offers made cinema a more appealing leisure activity for young adults and families with children. All these, together with the complementary off-screen marketing activities possible in the modern Cinema halls, made cinema more attractive for advertising.

Top advertising investors: Cosmetics and care products and Mobile telecom leaded in 2013

In 2013, the main categories of advertisers were similar to previous year, with Mobile telecom, Cosmetics & personal care and medical products& services investing the biggest budgets in advertising.

2014: Flat media market, similar dynamics with 2013

Initiative estimates that the media market will remain flat, following the same dynamics as in 2013. OOH (-2%) and Print (-10%) will continue to drop, TV and Radio will maintain the investment levels, while Online (+8%) will be the only media that will post growth.

Online video advertising is expected to grow significantly in 2014, due to consumers increasingly prefer visual content. Therefor, MFB estimates the market will go up 8%, to Euro 50M, supported by budgets increased by 25% for performance channels, Google and Facebook.