Print advertising revenue held its ground in 2024, while TV revenue declined, as per ad marketing reports. Experts attributed the trends to election activity and the ability of print media to create brand awareness.
Madison World in its Advertising Report 2025 observed that TV advertisers shrunk from 11,100 entities in 2023 to 8,650 entities in 2024, and many industry experts point to a flat TV revenue.
Despite an expectation of 8 per cent growth in 2024, TV only grew by 5 per cent y-o-y, taking TV ad expenditure to ₹34,450 crore. This is the slowest growth rate in the last seven years barring 2020. TV expenditure further lost 1 per cent point in terms of share and is now at 32 per cent.
Meanwhile print, despite marginal decline advertisers, registered a 5 per cent growth in ad expenditure and crossed the ₹20,000 crore mark for the first time after Covid-19, almost at par with the level it achieved in 2019.
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Print revenue in Q2 increased by 7 per cent to ₹4,197 crore supported by election, although volume declined by 6 per cent. Higher pricing and premium ad slots may have compensated for lower ad volume. In Q4, revenue increased by 10 per cent to ₹6,184 crore, due to festival season and contributed the highest share of 31 per cent. Overall, print maintained its share year on year and contributes 19 per cent of overall ad expenditure.
Advertisers rediscovering print ads
“For the second consecutive year, Print has maintained its share of 19 per cent in overall Adex. The fact that Print Adex grew last year by a rate of 5 per cent is indeed worthy, suggesting that advertisers are re-discovering value in the medium, particularly its strength in delivering localised, high-trust advertising experiences,” said Madison World in its report.
Subhendu Pattnaik, Chief Marketing Officer, Covasant, attributed this rediscovery to the medium’s ability to build a brand and give a better sensory experience like scented or tactile ads, compared to the 2D visuals by TV.
“Print is still picking up probably because there’s better opportunity to create a brand. Earlier, it was difficult for print to carry out targeted ad. However, today, companies can do so on print for a much lower budget than TV ads, which will stay for a full day. If the ad is creative enough, people even take the printed ad online. So why would companies spend on TV when you can get a higher impact than TV ads at a fraction of the spending?” said Pattnaik.
Print adex to grow but market share to decline
Like Madison World, Group M also noted print’s comparatively better performance. It reported the traditional medium’s ad revenue to have grown by 5 per cent year on year in 2024 while TV only grew by 1 per cent year on year.
“We are forecasting print to grow at 4 per cent in 2025. TV ad revenue growth will decline by 1 per cent. Clearly you are seeing that at an individual level. Individual mediums are still growing probably only market where print continues to grow. And that continues. TV and digital still make up 86 per cent share of all ad spends, with TV accounting for about 26 per cent of the spends. Meanwhile, print is about 10 per cent of the total share. It is an interesting graphic,” said Ashwin Padmanabhan, Chief Operating Officer at GroupM.
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Similarly, Madison also expects print ad expenditure recovery to continue in 2025 with an overall growth of 7 per cent or close to ₹22,000 crore. This projection is estimated based on organic expansion in key sectors like auto, FMCG, education and real estate. However, it added that print’s overall share in Total ad expenditure is still expected to drop slightly to 18 per cent in line with the broader trend of digital media gaining clout in the advertising space.
