Spanish advertising market set to fall 17%

Madrid: Spain's bludgeoned advertising market will be down 17 per cent by the end of this year and will fall a further 6.5 per cent in 2010, a survey by advertising consultancy Zenithmedia forecast on Monday.

Zenithmedia said its October report was gloomy since it had expected to see some improvement when compared to a particularly slow end of last year.

"The return from the summer has not brought with it a recovery, not even a relative one," said the consultancy in a note.

Spanish media companies have been hit by the sharp turnaround in the fortunes of the Spanish economy, which grew faster than the euro zone average in the last few years before the crisis hit and is still submerged in recession.

Advertising revenue dropped more than 40 per cent at Spanish broadcaster Telecinco during the first nine months of the year.

At Prisa, which runs businesses including bestselling daily newspaper El Pais and pay-TV group Digital+, advertising revenue fell 22 per cent.

The Zenithmedia survey represented the views of 33 advertisers, responsible for 12.5 per cent of the market's total spending, and from a range of sectors.