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Thailand faces sluggish ad spend growth in 2014, predicts industry body

Wannee Ruttanaphon

MAAT chairwoman Wannee Ruttanaphon

Thailand’s ad industry is facing a year ahead of sluggish growth, according to predications from industry body the Media Agency Association of Thailand.

Despite the expansion of the media industry with the launch of 24 new commercial digital terrestrial TV stations in the second half of 2014, Thai ad spend will probably grow by only three to five per cent, to Bt146 billion (US$4.4 billion), MAAT has said.

Economic uncertainty has been blamed on the sluggish media market, and continue political unrest was not factored into the MAAT’s predictions.

“The ongoing economic slowdown is being blamed as a key factor in influencing key advertisers’ decision to spend their money through some media outlets. Our projection is, therefore, set in line with the national gross domestic product, which is expected to lie roughly between three to five per cent from last year,” MAAT chairwoman Wannee Rattanaphon, who heads up IPG Mediabrands Thailand, said yesterday.

The new digital terrestrial TV channels will not lift ad spend this year because spending on cable and satellite TV stations will migrate to digital terrestrial TV channels, rather than move from the six free-TV channels.

MAAT predicts that while the impact of the new TV station launches on analogue TV stations will be small, cable and satellite channels could expect to see a six per cent fall in revenue.

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