Global ad revenue seen rising 5.4% in 2011

Reuters: Global advertising revenue will grow 5.4 percent to $412 billion in 2011 as economies return to more solid footing, said research firm MagnaGlobal.

MagnaGlobal, a division of Interpublic Group of Cos Inc, had previously forecast a less bullish boost of 4.2 percent. It said spending in the fast-growing economies of China and India will help drive higher revenue.

Television will remain the top advertising medium, accounting for $169 billion in 2011, MagnaGlobal said.

But in a sign of the web’s coming of age, the company predicts that online advertising will overtake newspapers as the world’s second-largest advertising medium by 2013.

In the United States, higher ad revenue would help large media companies such as Viacom Inc, Walt Disney Co, Time Warner Inc and News Corp.

MagnaGlobal’s expectation for the compounded annual growth rate for the global advertising industry is 6.3 percent through 2016.

That represents an upgrade for most years of more than half a percent, compared to its previous forecast from June.