Total advertising expenditure in the UK will decline by 11.7 per cent this year, to £14.5bn ($23.7bn; €17bn), but will return to marginal growth in 2010, according to figures from WARC (World Advertising Research Center) and the Advertising Association. Adspend declined four per cent in 2008, year-on-year, to £18.6bn. There had been positive growth of 4.3 per cent in 2007.

But the forecast predicts adspend levels in the country will reach show a modest rise to £14.7bn in 2010, and will again rise by four per cent in the first three months of 2011.

In terms of media, TV ad revenues are set to decrease by 11.9 per cent this year, to £3.4bn – amounting to a share of just under a quarter of the British advertising market – and will remain flat in 2010.

Advertisers will also cut their national newspaper outlay by 14.8 per cent during 2009, with budgets remaining largely static over the next 12 months. Consumer magazines will similarly see a 14.2 per cent drop off this year, to £639m, with business and professional titles down by more than 18 per cent, to £687m.

The Advertising Association and WARC say Internet will post growth of just 1.4 per cent this year – as the medium’s rate of expansion slows from 39.5 per cent in 2007 and 19.1 per cent in 2008 – and six per cent in 2010, when revenues will stand at £3.6bn.