• by Wayne Friedman , June 7, 2017

Traditional U.S. TV advertising will maintain its strong overall media position -- but will barely grow by 2021.

TV’s compounded annual growth rate (CAGR), from 2016 to 2021, will inch up 1.3% to $75.2 billion -- with online TV advertising offering the best performance in terms of percentage gain, according to PwC (accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers).

Online TV advertising -- defined as ad-supported TV network programming on digital platforms -- will climb 7.4% on a compounded annual growth rate, from 2016-2021, to $5.7 billion -- a 7.6% share of the entire TV advertising market.

For all of 2017, online TV advertising is projected to be $4.4 billion.

Cable networks will command the best growth rates in the TV marketplace over the period from 2016 to 2021 -- a 2.9% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) hike to $25.2 billion. Broadcast networks will gain 1% in this period to $18.9 billion. Estimates are that this year, those broadcast networks will total $18 billion.

The U.S. TV ad market will remain the largest TV advertising market globally -- with a 41.8% share of revenue in 2016. Emerging markets will cause the U.S. share to decline to 38.8% by 2021. 

Advertising dollars going to U.S. TV stations are expected to sink 1.5% by 2021 -- to $20.4 billion. TV stations are projected to amass $21.5 billion in 2017. In 2012, TV station advertising revenue was $23.1 billion, according to PwC.

Local advertising on cable, satellite and telco systems is expected to climb 2.6% to $5.05 billion in 2021; currently it is estimated to get to $4.8 billion this year.

Looking at this year and a year ago, overall TV ad growth -- from all TV networks/platforms -- is expected to be $70.98 billion in 2017 up slightly from $70.62 billion in 2016.