The Romanian media industry: whereto?
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August 2011 |
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MARUAN TRASCU - Senior Research Manager
INITIATIVE MEDIA S.A. |
Adresa
Strada Ceasornicului, Nr. 17
014111 Bucureşti, Sector 1
Telefon
+40-21-301.01.00
Fax
+40-21-301.00.99
Website
www.initiativemedia.ro
2010 was another difficult year for the Romanian media industry. Both media owners and media agencies together with the advertising clients tried to find their way in an environment with a persistent level of economical incertitude and adapt to a changing media and brand consumer.
However, what has been forecasted has happened: the media landscape, willingly or unwillingly, started to adapt to the new order and media channels especially went through their efficiency test. Some of them passed, some failed and some are still struggling. Initiative’s 15th edition of its annual Media Fact Book dives into all those changes with the purpose of offering you an in-depth analysis of the Romanian media industry’s past, present and future.
The Overall Picture
After a full year of crisis, the contraction of the Romanian media market continued in 2010 but at a significantly lower rate compared to previous year (-9% in 2010 vs. 2009). All major media have been impacted – TV, Radio, Print and Outdoor – with Internet being the only medium with a significant volume increase (more than 30% growth comparedto 2009).
Print continued to be the most affected medium in 2010 (-30% vs. 2009), followed by OOH (-20%), Radio (-16%) and with the smallest decrease on TV (-6%).
TV had the highest share of the total net media market (66%) & grew in share versus 2009 (64%), OOH followed with a share of 11%. The growth in Online spend meant that online budgets matched Print’s share at 8% and overtook Radio (7%). The TV market continued its development by launching new channels: TLC, 10 TV and new channels have been added to the audiences monitoring systems: VH1, TVR3, Dolce Sport, Eurosport2.
In 2010, online advertising was the only media type reflecting a net growth in advertising revenue. The main drivers of growth were the social media platform extensions and performance marketing activities, mainly search.
Social networking sites have recorded unprecedented growth rates, pulling significant investment from advertised brands (estimated 3% of online net advertising investment).
Facing a severe drop in readership and advertising investment, the Print market struggled to defend revenues through aggressive marketing actions: creating new impactful formats, launching supplements for niche audience groups and developing integrated promotional campaigns on print, TV and online. Sachet insertions covered products from cosmetics to food, with more books and CD / DVD sold together with the newspaper or magazine.
Radio tried to adapt to the new market situation through launching new programs, PR activities and improving their online presence through dedicated websites and social network sites. Despite the crisis, in 2010 most of the leading stations were sold out in Prime Time, a new channel was launched (Rock FM) and ProFM & ArboRadio extended their existing networks, improving coverage.
In 2010, OOH was the second medium after print with a dramatic decrease in revenue, as happened in 2009. Due to the uncertanty in the legal environment and the difficult market conditions (price deflation & low ocupancy rate) the vendors did not invest in building new sites or in modernizing the existing ones. The cinema market in Romania is growing with new multiplexes and new technologies (digital projection, 3D technology, 6D movies).
“Medical & optical products & services” became the leading category, up from 2nd position in 2009 with one of the highest budget increases (+55%). “Mobile Telecommunication Services”, the leader last year, dropped to 2nd position in 2010 despite an increase in budget (+11%). “Dairy products” and “Hygienics” are some of the categories which kept the same ranking, while “Cosmetics”, “Banking & Insurance Services” dropped to lower places, whilst others fell outside of the top 10 (“Beer”, “Cars & 4x4 vehicles”). New categories in the top 10 are “Household cleaners (+26%), and “Laundryproducts” (+40%).
