Media Fact Book: Media market in Romania will go down 16.5% this year due to pandemic

The media market in Romania will contract by 16.5% this year due to the new coronavirus pandemic, according to the Media Fact Book 2020 published by local media agency Initiative.

Thus, the advertising spending in Romania is expected to contract to EUR 401 million this year, from EUR 480 million in 2019.

The year looked good before the pandemic and the media market was expected to pass the EUR 0.5 bln milestone. But the pandemic caused a significant revision of the forecast. However, the current crisis is nothing like the one in 2009, from a media point of view, according to the study’s authors.

“Figures speak for themselves. In 2009, the media market fell by 36%, losing around EUR 200 mln. It then needed 3 years to turn back to growth. Now, according to our forecast, EUR 80 mln (16.5%) will be lost by the end of 2020 – not a trivial amount, but not the same, either,” the report reads.

The print segment, which has been on a downtrend for many years anyway, will be the hardest-hit this year and could lose more than half of its revenues compared to 2019 (from EUR 12 mln to EUR 5 mln). Radio stations will also record a drop of over 28% (from EUR 28 mln to EUR 20 mln). The TV segment, which is still represents about two-thirds of the whole market, will lose about 15% of its revenues (from EUR 308 mln to EUR 261 mln).

Meanwhile, the fast-growing digital media segment will contract by only 7% this year (from EUR 99 mln to EUR 92 mln), according to the report. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the digital media segment was expected to increase by 16% this year, to EUR 115 mln.

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