Media and Advertising Market Trends of Croatia in 2021

Media market trends in 2021

The economic environment of the local media market 

The major macroeconomic change in 2021 happened due to census that is implemented every ten years in Croatia. According to census 2021, Croatia’s population decreased by 9% compared to 2011, and counts a total of 3,889,000 citizens. In 2011, we were – in average – forty-one years old, while in 2021, forty-four. 
The unemployment rate slightly increased from 7.5% to 7.6%. The average net income per capita increased by 5%: from EUR 898 to EUR 947, and the GDP per capita by 19%: from EUR 12,408 to EUR 14,718. The GDP-growth was mostly fueled by tourism that is measured by the number of overnight stays in commercial accommodation facilities. In 2021, there were 70.2 million overnight stays, which is a 72% increase compared to the pandemic year of 2020. 

The political environment of the local media market 

Milan Bandić, the long-time mayor of the Croatian capital Zagreb, died on 28th of February in the election year of 2021. He was the most powerful political actor in Zagreb for two decades, and played an important role on national level as well. He was tied to numerous political and economic scandals and was even prosecuted by law authorities. With his death, the local media regained freedom, and will flourish thanks to the new, modern mayor: Tomislav Tomašević. From the perspective of media, the last good thing that late mayor did was the opening of Zagreb’s public transport to advertising, so now it is possible to brand trams or buses – for the price of two billboards. At the same time, the legendary radio channel, 101 lost its concession. It was given to the largest radio group of Croatia, making the radio segment the one with the most players but the highest concentration of investments (in fewer hands).

The local media market 

After two years of decline in investment on the Croatian media market, the recovery is palpable in 2021 – the total media investment is 7% higher than it was in 2020. The level of investment grew in all media types, except for print. OOH increased the most (+18% vs 2020). The Top 3 categories were Retail (EUR 30.8 million), Telecoms (EUR 11.6 million) and Financial (EUR 10.5 million), and the top advertisers were Fortenova Group (EUR 9 million), Lidl (EUR 5.6 million) and Kaufland (EUR 4.7 million).

The trends of media consumption 

The consumption of TV slightly decreased: from 92% (in 2020) to 89% (in 2021). The consumption of online media continued growing (the potential reach in 2021 was 93%), and took over the leading position from TV for the first time. The biggest decline is recorded in print media consumption; dailies declined by 20% and magazines by 21% compared to 2020. Radio reach in 2021 was 71%, which is 8% lower than in 2020, while outdoor reach decreased by 2% (the potential reach in 2021 was 78%).

After the new census figures will be implemented in the Nielsen panel-universe, big changes are expected in the TV-viewership data in 2022. Despite the increase of multichannel households, Time Shifted Viewing is still low in Croatia (3-5%). 

After an increase of ATV in the total and the younger population of 18-49 YO in 2020, ATV decreased by 7 minutes in the total population (281 minutes in 2021) and 14 minutes in the TG 18-49 (195 minutes in 2021). Generally, ATV is higher in the older TGs, especially in the 50+ one where it is 26% higher vs. the total population.
There are three major national channel groups in Croatia. Nova TV is clearly the leader, based on all TV-viewership indicators (reach, audience share and AMR). Doma TV is gaining share year after year, while RTL channels are losing their positions. Sports content is the most popular on national TV-stations, followed by domestic and foreign series, news and shows. N1 is the most popular IPTV channel, followed by Nickelodeon and Pickbox. The share of most IPTV-channels increased in 2021. 

Print media houses maintain all their titles, circulations, and contents stable in these pandemic years. Within dailies, “24sata” remained the most read title in Croatia. Most daily newspapers recorded a decrease in their readerships. Gloria is the top magazine in the market in 2021, but even its readership is declining. Online media is dominated by print and TV publishers, and index.hr and telegram.hr are the only players that are online-only.
Radio in Croatia has a strong regional character – local radio-stations gather a significant audience. However, a national campaign without one of the two top radio stations (Otvoreni and Narodni) cannot reach maximum radio potential. On the other hand, in some regions (like Istria and Dalmatia) the maximum radio potential cannot be reached without using local and regional stations. The top regional/local radio stations are Antena Zagreb and Radio Dalmacija. During the pandemic years and the recent earthquakes in Croatia, local radios were listened to more, because they delivered the latest and most accurate information to the audience.