ZenithOptimedia Revises Ad Forecast

ZenithOptimedia has downgraded its global ad forecast, now expecting growth of 4.3 percent for the year instead of the previously predicted 4.8 percent.

The forecast for Western Europe was lowered to 1.5 percent, while Central and Eastern Europe dipped to 6.5 percent from last quarter's forecast of 8 percent. Overall Eurozone ad spending is expected to fall 1.1 percent in 2012, with declines of 5 percent in Italy, 10.4 percent in Portugal, 12 percent in Spain and 19.5 percent in Greece. Adspend in Latin America and the Asia Pacific is expected to slow. In Latin America, the forecast has been downgraded from 9.2 percent to 7.8 percent.

In the Asia Pacific, it's down from 7.4 percent to 6.7 percent. The U.S. forecast is unchanged, at 3.6 percent, due in large part to it being an election year. The revised spending for the U.K. is upward, at 3.5 percent, though TV advertising in the country will hardly grow at all, at 0.5 percent, even with the London Olympic Games.