CEE regional advertising spending in 2023

As inflation raised prices, media spendings visibly grew, but in case of several countries this meant more nominal growth. However, the overall sum of ad spending in the region showed considerable increase, totaling to 11.224 billion euros, which means a 16% growth compared to 2022.

2023 proved to be another challenging year for the Central and Eastern European media markets, largely due to the economic context, which was influenced by high inflation and modest growth, and also political changes affecting legislation, trust and investments. 

Total ad spending in the region, 2014-2023 (net, EUR)

Several markets showed double-digit growth, amongst these there are some of the biggest markets of the region, such as the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Hungary and Romania. But similarly to last year, in the case of Hungary, this seemingly impressive increase means a decline of almost 7% when calculated in Forint, due to the weakening of the currency. The Lithuanian and Estonian markets have also shrunk compared to the previous year, and in the case of Slovakia, the difference between the past years in ad spending data is due to a change in methodology. 

Total ad spending in the region by media types, 2023 (net, EUR)

The expansion of the digital segment is the most prominent: reaching 6.38 billion euros and taking up 57% of the overall regional spending, it also boasts the biggest growth in all segments. Television is still the second strongest, but now with only 29% of the amount spent with declining investments. Print spending also continued to decline, now with only 4% of the total amount spent, while OOH also managed to show a visible surge, taking up 6%, and radio kept its share of 4%.

Average share of media types in the region, 2014-2023

The average share of advertising segments has shown a clear trend now for years: digital took the lead from TV after last year’s draw, further emphasizing that television is slowly losing its share to online. After the seeming stand-still of last year, print advertising has again lost from its share on average, while the outdoor segment managed to show growth and radio kept its share.

Advertising share in the CEE region, 2023