KUALA LUMPUR: The advertising revenue of media owners in the country is forecast to increase by 15.4% to RM5.1bil this year after experiencing a contraction of 20% last year, according to global media investment and intelligence company Magna.
It added that in this environment, the linear advertising revenue is set to increase by 10.8% to reach 44% of total advertiser budgets for the year. Linear advertising refers to a systematic schedule in which adverts are designed to run for a specific time on a particular medium.
Magna also expects the economy to grow by 7.4% based on real gross domestic product (GDP), following 2020’s 6.3% decline. This would essentially regain all the economic output lost last year, it added.
Fan Chen Yip, who is the chief investment officer of Mediabrands Malaysia, said: “Despite the current gloomy sentiment, economic and advertising growth – though not on par with 2019 levels – are still anticipated as evidenced from data across markets recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We are cautiously optimistic that it will be a similar situation for Malaysia, especially after the mass scale vaccination takes off over the coming months, and as businesses are more prepared to face Phase 1 of the National Recovery Plan.