Many marketers and brand managers will be thinking about 2026 budgeting as we move through the autumn and so in this page we ask how will the UK media spend landscape look as we move through 2025 and into 2026. Although we use AA WARC numbers as a reliable source for baseline spend levels, we use our own modelling to estimate 2026 spends by channel.
Key UK Adspend by channel take outs for 2026:
- Cinema will enjoy a period of stability to moderate growth and we forecast adspend / revenue of £254m in 2026
- DM will continue a significant downward trajectory and we forecast and we forecast adspend / revenue of £874m in 2026
- Magazines will continue to decline quite strongly and we forecast adspend / revenue of £414m in 2026
- Newspapers will also continue to decline strongly and we forecast adspend / revenue of £656m in 2026
- Online classified has not recovered since 2022 and is likely to continue to decline and we forecast adspend / revenue of £984m in 2026
- Online display including social will continue to grow and on a strong trajectory and we forecast adspend / revenue breaking through £20bn in 2026
- OOH including DOOH will continue to grow but growth rates are reducing slightly year on year and we forecast adspend / revenue of £1.5bn in 2026
- Radio, including online radio will be fairly stable YoY and we forecast adspend / revenue of £752m in 2026
- Regional news will continue a strong decline and we forecast adspend / revenue of £394m in 2026
- Search will continue strong growth alongside online display and social and we forecast search will also break through the £20bn level in 2026
- TV including BVOD will continue to recover vs 2023, but the overall pattern does suggest continued decline and we forecast adspend / revenue of £5.4bn in 2026
Please note this caution: These are forecasts which extrapolate the underlying growth trends for each channel. They do not account for other important factors such as the economy, the international situation, changes in consumer demand, the health of firms using marketing spends and the budget shifts they may apply in response to changing market scenarios.