The media usage habits in today’s digital environment have an increasing impact on the advertising market. The advertising revenues of the traditional media are in a constant decline, while the revenues from online advertising are constantly and rapidly growing. 

The new study of the RESIS Institute – conducted for the needs of the Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services – compares the audience habits towards information, entertainment and education from the traditional and new media, on one side, and the revenues these media sectors have received in the past three years.

Although the audience habits have impact on the advertising practices, the study finds that the main reason for the larger income in the online advertising sector is not the outflowing of the budget from the traditional to online media, but the fast and steady growth of the online advertising sector which attracts new advertisers who need fast and targeted online campaigns.

The Internet is used as a source of information to the same extent as television, but  for the younger audiences it is the main news source. The audience searches for news most frequently on the social networks (89%), than on the news aggregators (55%), on the web pages of the local news portals (48%) or of the local TV stations (37%).

In terms of entertainment, while traditional watching of TV is still dominant, , new ways of watching (on-demand, through a computer or a mobile device), are on the rise, especially amongst the younger generations. This trend is gradually calling into question the role of traditional TV as a main source of entertainment.

On the other hand, the estimation of the advertising revenues of various media sectors shows that in 2018: TV stations had 60% share from the total advertising revenues, the Internet had 20%, outdoor advertising 15%, while the shares of the radio and newspaper sectors were insignificant. The Study also pointed out that the revenues from online advertising in the country are much lower compared to those in the EU states, where in 2018 this sector achieved a record share of 45% in the total advertising of all media sectors.

Several research methods were combined in the Study. Audience consumption of the traditional and new media was examined with a previous face-to-face survey commissioned by the media regulator and with a telephone survey conducted for this study. The volume and characteristics of the digital media market were determined based on data obtained from the Central Registry of the RNM  as well as information gathered through in-depth interviews with representatives of local online media,  advertising agencies, experts in digital marketing and representatives of the Association for improving digital marketing (IAB Macedonia).

The Study can be found (in Macedonian) on this LINK.