Internet ad revenue in Canada in 2013 outpaces U.S., overtops television

For the first time in Canada, online advertising revenue has surpassed television, according to the latest Global Entertainment Media Outlook 2014-2018 report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). In 2013, internet advertising grew by about 16% (the lowest seen in post-recession years) and brought in $3.8 billion, topping $3.6 billion from television. The report says the likely trend is for internet advertising to approach double television by 2018, $7.2 billion versus $4.1 billion. Compare this with the U.S. where television is expected to still be ahead through 2018. According to a story in Media in Canada

This may be because Canada’s projected 13.9% average growth rate for internet advertising over the next five years outpaces the global rate of 10.7%, while our country’s rate of 2.4% for television is less than half the global rate of 5.5%.

The report attributes the internet ad growth to Canadians being some of the most active internet users in the world, the continuing strength of paid search advertising and huge increases in video and mobile advertising. Video ad spending grew by 47.7% in 2013, while paid searches contributed $1.5 billion to the total. 

The second biggest area of advertising growth in Canada last year was in the video game industry, growing by 13.4%. By 2018, revenue from video game advertising is predicted to nearly double from $89 million to $164 million.

Magazine traditional ad revenues will be flat or declining through 2018, says PwC; but digital growth will help hold the line

A story in Ad Age summarizing some of the implications for the magazine industry of the just-released PwC annual Global Entertainment and Media Outlook 2014-2018 suggests that while traditional advertising revenues will be flat or declining, digital growth will help to hold the line.

Consumer magazine revenue will be essentially flat this year at $24.6 billion compared with 2013, according to the annual Global Entertainment and Media Outlook from PricewaterhouseCoopers, which was released on Tuesday. It will remain at approximately $24.6 billion through 2018, PricewaterhouseCoopers predicted.

According to a report in Publishing Executive,  the big takeaway is that as the entertainment and media industry becomes more digitized, advertising growth is outpacing consumer spending. Unsurprisingly, this reveals that consumers are less inclined to pay for digital content. 

Digital consumer magazine revenue is much larger than digital circulation. Digital consumer magazine advertising revenue will rise by an average of 19.2 percent a year from US$3.15 billion in 2013 to US$7.6 billion in 2018; Digital circulation revenue will be just US$1.45 billion in 2018.