Digital Media Is Now Bigger Than National TV Advertising, Will Surpass Total TV by 2018

Magna Global issued a report predicting a major upswing of 8.3 percent for US television advertising revenue in 2014, after a dismal 2013 in which revenues were down 0.6 percent.

The World Cup, local political advertising, and the Olympics are among the factors contributing to the uptick, said Vincent Letang, Magna's EVP, director of global forecasting. Letang also predicted serious movement in the global mobile markets, among other trends, and one significant change: national TV advertising is now smaller than digital media.

"National TV benefited from the Olympics in the first quarter. Local TV will gain from political and health-related campaigns throughout the year. Hispanic TV will be boosted by the soccer World Cup," noted the report. Letang added that "there is really a two-year cycle to television."

"Elections make a huge difference for US television," he said. "Television is resilient to digital media and [is] still stealing market share from other traditional categories. People are moving money out of print and putting it in digital but still some in television."

Indeed, said Letang, digital media is projected to increase by 15.9 percent globally in 2014 -- but only because a comparatively weak increase in nonmobile viewing (where the majority of the money currently is) of 8 percent drags down an incredible 61 percent jump in global mobile ads.

Regarding the World Cup, Letang said the contest is "bigger than it's ever been because it's Brazil, so it's raising the interest of even casual viewers who wouldn't necessarily be soccer fans," Letang said. "It's not only about TV these days; it's about social and online video replays. It's about multiple viewings."