As featured on the Royal Television Society, read the full article here.
The UK TV advertising industry experienced a significant downturn in tv ad revenue in the first half of 2023, with both Channel 4 and ITV reporting declines in ad revenues. Nick Waters, Ebiquity CEO discusses with the Royal Television Society (RTS).
Nick says that advertiser caution has grown from the end of last year: “What we have seen is advertisers planning with a great degree of caution because of the expectation that the consumer market would collapse.”. He adds that, in a cautious market, with advertisers looking for shorter-term investment, “typically, the way to do that is to allocate more to performance media”, where payment is linked to results.
In the short term, Nick spoke about sticking with caution: “I think budgets across the piece will be under pressure, not just in television, through the course of 2023. The only thing that will change that is if inflation comes down and the Bank of England pauses interest-rate increases.”
While noting “encouraging signs around ITVX”, he forecasts that 2023 will, overall, be a challenging year for free-to-air broadcasters and TV ad revenue.
The trend away from linear to digital advertising is steady, with BVoD (broadcaster video-on-demand) channels growing their revenues. New ad-supported streamer services, such as those offered by Netflix and Disney+, have yet to make a significant impact. “I’m not sure that those streaming services are going to help advertisers reach audiences very much more,”. For now, the big TV ad revenue remains in linear.
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