PWC predicts global drop in media revenue

Daniel Essiet

Global entertainment and media revenue will fall by 14.3 per cent this year, with consumer magazines to be hit hardest, PWC’s Media Outlook report 2020-2024 has forecasted.

PwC’s Global Entertainment & Media Outlook provides a single comparable source of business decisions.

According to the report, global newspaper advertising is set to fall by $8 billion this year, with global circulation revenues down by $6.5billion on last year, new figures show.

PWC said: “The migration of advertising to digital platforms and lower rates are driving this change, and although unit sales are falling at an often precipitous rate, publishers have the extra lever of cover-price rises to mitigate revenue decline.

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“The result is that print circulation revenue in general is falling less quickly than print advertising revenue, and that remains so even in the COVID-19-affected world.

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The report said the impact of higher paper, production and distribution costs combined with shrinking advertising revenue, which has been sharpened by COVID-19 pandemic, will see reduced newspaper revenues through 2024.

The report, noted, however, that daily newspaper consumption that fell due to the pandemic will return to pre-COVID trends towards the end of the forecast period.

It said: “Competition for consumer magazine publishers increasingly comes not from other magazines but from major tech players, magazine aggregators and digital publishers. New business models, including the use of paywalls, horizontal branding and joint ventures with other publishers, will continue to drive rising digital revenues.”