1 2020 This document is a product of INITIATIVE MEDIA In putting together the Media Fact Book we have used data and information supplied by: The Romanian Association for Audience Measurement (ARMA), The Romanian Audit Bureau of Circulation (BRAT), The Romanian Association for Radio Audience Measurement (ARA), Kantar Media, International Advertising Association (IAA), Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Business Monitor International, ANRCTI, The National Institute of Statistics (INSSE), EuroStat, focus- FACTBOOK economics.com, ANCOM, Profit.ro, iSense Solutions, Similar Web, Global Web Index, Statista, GPeC. Acknowledgements to the following members of the INITIATIVE team who significantly contributed to this book: Content: Alexandra Olteanu, Catalin Florea, Ruxandra Stefan, Ruxandra Stan, Razvan Simionescu, Corina Burlan, Roxana Cristescu, Catalina Ghita, Alexandru Miu, Daniel Popescu, Editor’s Foreword • 4 Cosmin Otel, Adriana Ciobanu, Denisa Andrei. MACROECONOMY • 7 Special contributors: • Oana Osman - Founding Member and Deputy Editor in Chief at Profit.ro Media Market • 15 • Silviu Antohe, Valentin Ionescu, Nicoleta Grigoriu - Mullen Lowe Cover Story COVID -19 Impact • 23 • Veronica Oancea, Adelina Dobrin - Mullen Lowe Profero Television • 31 • Alexandru Safta, Marina Constanda - Golin Digital Media • 45 OOH • 67 Radio • 73 Print • 81 © INITIATIVE MEDIA S.A, Bucharest, 2020 All rights reserved list of abbreviations • 87 This publication is protected by copyright. No parts of this book may be reproduced without the prior written consent of the copyright owner. Readers should understand that the data contained in the Media Fact Book is as actual and accurate as the sources could provide at the moment the book was written. Your comments and suggestions are welcome as a valuable input for the future editions of this book. 20202020 MEDIAMEDIA 2 FACTBOOKFACTBOOK 3 EDITOR’S I will open with a blunt statement: pandemic, own measures for The obvious, if sad remark is that At this moment, neither Print, nor FOREWORDthe current crisis is nothing like the business continuity. The focus OOH has little room left to fall. OOH could drive much higher one in 2009, from a media point of was set not on cheap exposure, And, in all fairness, it probably lost losses. TV loses almost 50M Euro, view. but on preserving connections – some of its value due to negative but keeps prices at a decent level, so something which brands, just as advertiser sentiment, rather than it conserves its potential to recover. Figures speak for themselves. In individuals, need to do in times of loss of reach, as some locations Furthermore, the lockdown proved 2009, the media market fell by social distancing. continued to record good traffic that peoples’ love story with TV is 36%, losing around 200M Euro. It even during lockdown, based on still going strong. Media groups and then needed 3 years to turn back However, in the long term, the big Google Mobility data. agencies had wished for an increase to growth. Now, according to our losers of 2009 were OOH (28M in TTV, to reduce inflationary forecast, 80M Euro (16.5%) will be Euro lost) and Print (43M Euro Print was a completely different pressures, and it happened in big lost by the end of 2020 – not a trivial lost). Let’s understand why this story (but also a sad one). In the style, with 30-40% increases in amount, but not the same, either. And happened and why it’s impossible present, its impact on the media daily TTV rating, at the peak of the this is only the tip of the iceberg. to happen again. market has become very low lockdown. But careful what you wish (2-3%). But back in 2008, Print for! We got the extra rating, not the In 2009, 115M Euro were lost by TV OOH will always suffer in times stood for 15% of the market, while extra spending, as part of the big alone, a hard blow from which TV of uncertainty, as long as it is suffering from a fatal vulnerability: advertisers was in offside, dealing never recovered fully. This was not not measured. It is (ironically) the circulation of many key titles with the forced closure of their only due to reduced business volumes a “good weather” medium. As had been artificially increased by businesses. Even so, TV stations (GRPs sold). It was massively soon as clouds gather above the bundling “premiums”. Rather have a much better position now, worsened by strong deflation, a economy and cuts have to be than be read for their content, than they had in 2009. race to the bottom which not only made, marketing executives look newspapers became more like contributed to the immediate crash for KPIs, if possible real-time, wrapping papers for books or What about Digital? In 2008 (when of the market, but also made it much and even in 2020 most outdoor various collectibles. As the crisis we still called it “Internet”) we more difficult to return to growth, as locations are unable to provide hit, publishers discovered that estimated Digital at 16M Euro or they could only sustain much more heavily discounted prices became the this. Falling from 70M Euro in 3% of the media market. Since than, modest circulations, which in turn norm. This time, the market knows 2009, OOH has struggled under it was the only medium to keep drove advertisers away. At the same better. Media groups provided better 35M Euro for 9 years and just growing no matter what, year after time, distribution collapsed, with a deals during the state of emergency when it was regaining some year. Until now. And here comes the strong impact on readership. Print, but avoided a “GRP yard sale”. They momentum, COVID-19 sends it to biggest headline: Digital loses 7M we might say, had been cut both at emphasized flexibility, availability the lowest level in recent history, Euro in 2020! We explain how this the suppliers’ and at the consumers’ and, accounting for the risks of a 23M Euro estimated for this year. happened in the “Media Market” ends. 4 5 section and, further, in “Digital”. spend as much as needed in order For the moment, let this sink in: to support economic recovery? we’ve watched Digital advertising Measures being taken, at European grow and now it has come of age. and national level, make us believe It is no longer invulnerable to that stimulus will be available to economic crises, and it gets its support spending and maintain own bruises as marketing budgets lifestyles at a decent level. But fall. However, same as TV, Digital one final piece of evidence should media saw strong increases in give us additional peace of mind. engagement during the first half People plan to spend less money on of 2020. Better than TV, it has a “unnecessary things”, according cellular, decentralized content to an ongoing study from iSense structure, with big advertising Solutions, but at the same time platforms which are highly they increase consumption of resilient to economic issues. So, things like alcoholic drinks, sweets again, while budgets temporarily and cosmetics. Google searches for decrease, the framework remains treadmills (among others) went in place, ready to support a quick through the roof, so did VOD recovery as soon as possible. subscriptions. Who are we to say what’s “necessary”? For all these reasons we can say that the COVID-19 tsunami, as People will continue to spend violent as it may be, is nothing like on whatever helps them deal the 2009 earthquake, at least in with current needs. It is up to us, Romanian media. Even if medical agencies and clients, to understand problems extend into the second these needs and guide people to the half of the year or 2021, we have solutions we provide. Not much reasons to maintain a positive has changed after all, at the core of outlook. our mission. For everything else, for the evolutions in 2019 and the One final, key question: will changes in 2020, let’s have a look at people be able and willing to this year’s Media Fact Book. 6 7 An economic year when only uncertainty is certain All 2020 forecasts and prognosis A crisis with a source outside entrepreneur cannot rely on to needed resources to ever recover, made by a multitude of entities markets and economic laws, adapt his business plans, more hundreds of thousands of lost specialized in understanding whose ending depends on keeping than on his intuition. jobs will not be regained through the economic outlook have a new virus under control, has immediate re-employment. Unlike previous crises, this been reduced to nothing in found authorities and companies Measures to mitigate effects have time, the main causes of the the first weeks of March. In lacking the prescription for been taken by Governments economic collapse are not the Romania, as everywhere else in a treatment verified in the everywhere, central banks have the world, economists, analysts, disruption of market mechanisms, past. Never in known times accelerated money printing at or miscalculations made by and Government officials have have decisions been made so companies and public authorities. historically unprecedented rates, acquired only one certainty - that largely based on… nothing. In Now, the economy has simply but all of these are only temporary the future is uncertain. More the absence of verified data, been shut down “by decree”, in band-aids. uncertain than ever. information and models, analysts many sectors that transmit chain are speculating around possible A true recovery cannot exist until reactions to others as well, in recovery scenarios in an uncertain the real economy and markets order to focus all social efforts on future, following an economic regain their breath on their own, a single goal: the fight against a collapse of equally uncertain virus.