Broadcasters are facing the prospect of the worst year for TV advertising since the recession of 2009, as uncertainty over the likelihood of a hard Brexit has seen jittery companies strip more than £400m from marketing budgets.
Before the UK vote to leave the European Union in the summer, analysts had predicted another bumper year for the TV advertising market with forecasts of a boost of as much as over 7% to almost £4.7bn. This was on the back of a 10.4% year-on-year rise in 2015.
However, industry sources now fear the UK TV ad market could experience a huge negative swing with total advertising revenues potentially being down 1% to 2%.