Media cost inflation to retreat in 2024, finds WFA Outlook 2024 report

Based on the forecasts from eight agency groups and consulting companies, Outlook covers up to 41 markets and 12 media channels, including linear TV, Connected TV, Digital Video and Display, Digital Retail Media, Paid Search and traditional media channels.

The general trend is one of gradual decline in the forecasted rate of price inflation.

This is on the back of high inflation in 2023, but the US TV Upfront market is forecast to see much reduced inflation in 2024, with Prime and Sports both expected to see flat (or single digits) inflation Year-On-Year. Similar trends can be seen in other major markets including Australia, Germany, Japan and Mexico. There are exceptions, of course. TV prices in both China and India are forecast to hold at +1.5% and +11.8% YoY (respectively).

A similar pattern is playing out across other media, with the rate of inflation on Digital Video and Digital Display forecast to decline slightly.

This trend isn’t universally the case and it’s noted that inflation is forecast to creep in (for some markets) within Social and the rapidly expanding Retail Media space.

This is the eighth year that WFA has produced media inflation data in this form, with there now being two updates per year, to help clients and the contributors manage a volatile market.

WFA partners and collaborators (Ebiquity and Cortex Media) support the WFA process with data processing of anonymised datasets.

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