India to leapfrog Italy to become 10th largest advertising market globally in 2017

Key highlights:

• India to overtake Italy to become 10th largest ad market in 2017
• Ad spends in India are expected to grow to Rs 56,400 crore in 2017
• India is forecast to grow by 11.5%

The Indian advertising market is expected to become the tenth largest ad market in the world in 2017. According IPG Mediabrands-owned Magna report, Italy was the tenth largest ad market in the world up to 2016, but it will be leapfrogged by fast growing India this year and drop outside the top ten.

The report said that advertising spends in India is forecast to grow by 11.5% in 2017. This is 2% below the forecast of 13.5% by Magna, but is in line with last year's growth of 11.8%.

Ad spends in India are expected to grow to Rs 56,400 crore in 2017, according to the report.

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The Indian market is expected to grow by 12.5% in 2018 and accelerate further to 14% in 2019. This will be boosted by the ad spends due to the Cricket World Cup and General Elections.

Within the top 20 markets the highest growth rates are expected in China (7%), Spain (7%), India and Russia (10%).

A reason why the estimates are revised to 2% below is the disruption in the short term expected to be caused by the goods and service tax (GST) that comes into effect July 1. The report expects a short term disruption to be caused due to GST as the industry realigns and adapts to the new tax structure.

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It said that sectors such as social, fintech, payment banks, telecom, content distribution platforms along with FMCG, automobile and e-commerce to drive spends this year.

In India digital continues to be the fastest growing medium and is expected to register a 28% growth. For the first time the digital ad spends are predicted to touch the Rs 10,227 crore mark.

However, traditional advertising spends will still remain strong in India. It said that India is one of the few large markets where all traditional media platforms will grow.

Television is expected to grow over 10.3%, with Free to Air (FTA) channels gaining significant ad spends. Print is expected to grow by over 5.7% with higher spends from automobile, telecom and education.

Radio is expected to see a large growth of over 13%, while OOH is expected to grow by over 12%.