Ad revenue growth to slow down to 7% in 2025: Report

Ad revenue growth is estimated to slow down to 7 per cent in 2025 from the 8.8 per cent attained in 2024, a leading media agency said on Tuesday.

WPP entity GroupM pegged the Indian advertising revenues across all media formats to grow at 7 per cent to Rs 1,64,137 crore in 2025, from Rs 1,53,407 crore in 2024.

India will be the ninth biggest advertising market globally in a list that has the US, China, and the UK as the top-three countries.

Globally, the ad revenue growth is set to slow down to 7.7 per cent in 2025 from 9.5 per cent in 2024.

Digital ad spends will be driving the growth for India with an 11.5 per cent growth in ad revenue to nearly Rs 1 lakh crore, as per the agency's 'This Year Next Year' report.

The report said digital spends will be 60 per cent of the overall spends in India, as against 82 per cent globally in 2025.

Television will be the second biggest by revenues at Rs 42,431 crore, but is likely to witness a 1 per cent decline in revenues in 2025 from the Rs 42,859 crore in the year-ago period.

Print ad revenues will grow 4 per cent to Rs 15,947 crore, giving the medium a 10 per cent share in overall revenues in 2025, the report said.

Outdoor and hoardings advertising will grow 8 per cent to Rs 3,671 crore, radio will decline 1 per cent to Rs 2,009 crore, while cinema advertising will see a 10 per cent growth to Rs 942 crore in 2025, the report said.

The company's Chief Operating Officer, Ashwin Padmanabhan, said streaming TV is now accounting for 12.6 per cent of total TV ad revenue, which signals a critical shift for brands to optimise across high-growth platforms.

He added that key sectors such as small businesses, realty, education, banking financial services and insurance, and technology/telecom will be contributing 60 per cent of total advertising, and are set to grow at around 10 per cent.