• by Wayne Friedman , April 13, 2012

Growth of U.S. media industries will continue to outpace the economy in 2012.

All communications/media industries are expected to show a combined growth of 5.6% to $1.185 trillion -- up from 4.2% in 2011, much of this coming from an digital media and overall economic media growth, per Veronis Suhler Stevenson.

The survey says this will outpace overall GDP, growth domestic product, which is set to grow at 4.4%.

This year, the survey says there will be higher-than-GDP growth in five or six industry sectors. Categories include consumer Internet and mobile services, up 18.1%; public relations and word-of-mouth marketing, 14.6% higher; broadcast television, gaining 9.3%; subscription television, up 7.7%; and branded entertainment, adding on 7.5%. 

Media and communications businesses will continue to grow at an average 5.7% compounded rate, piling on $343 billion in the next three years to land at $1.419 trillion in 2015.

John Suhler, co-founder/president of VSS, stated: “What has resulted is an increase in spending within the U.S. communications industry as both consumers and businesses begin to expand their use of a variety of communications platforms and tools, such as mobile devices and tablets. Bottom line: this is the best news for the industry in several years.”

One of the lagging areas will be “traditional consumer advertising media," where VSS continues to expect a 2.6% growth rate for 2012, which includes spending on broadcast television, newspaper publishing, consumer magazine publishing, broadcast and satellite radio, local consumer directories, and OOH media.

Looking three years ahead, the survey expects compounded growth rates in the traditional advertising areas to slightly dip: 1.9% through 2015 with spending reaching $160.4 billion. This is due to declines in print advertising, predicted to be deeper than initially expected. However, some of this will be offset by increases in Internet and mobile advertising offerings of branded traditional media.