Media demand, budgets up: New report

January 21, 2011 by Dave Haynes

Wall Street securities firm Deutsche Bank has issued an investor report that suggests, based on what media buyers are telling them, that demand for all media – and particularly big media like TV networks – is growing.

The report itself doesn’t seem to be published online, but MediaPost has a copy:

The report suggests demand “will culminate in a strong upfront TV advertising marketplace later this year, according to results of a survey of 31 media buyers represent more than $5 billion in U.S. advertising budgets.”

“Continued strength in the ad market bodes particularly well for large cap media, as within advertising, national is expected to grow faster than local (4.3% vs. 2.5%), and within national advertising, cable networks are expected to take the most share behind only digital, driven in part by continued strength in auto,” the firm’s equity research team wrote in a report sent to investors.

Citing strong four quarter 2010 results, and the most recent advertising sales “pacings” during the beginning of the first quarter of this year, the securities analysts said network scatter ad prices are running 35% or more above last year’s upfront advertising rates.

“We expect another strong upfront will be on the books,” the report concluded, noting, “Our preliminary upfront estimate is strong 8% CPM (cost per thousand) increases for broadcast networks and 6% for cable networks, with total volume up over 10%.”

Demand is improving among many of the largest TV advertising categories, but especially healthcare/pharmaceutical, telecommunications, and entertainment/media marketers, though consumer packaged goods, technology and retail are also demonstrating relatively strong demand, according to media buyers responding the survey.

The actual report MAY address sectors a little, but there’s nothing specific about DOOH or even online in the MediaPost report. It’s reasonable, though, to extrapolate that more willingness to buy media is a good thing all around.