Media monitoring market harks back to last year’s value

Monitoring print, broadcast and internet content is one of the services that the majority of companies didn’t cut back on, even if they had to find other ways to contain costs. Of course, there were exceptions too. “The first clients who cut back on media monitoring services were the real estate developers”, Mateescu told Wall-Street. Other companies operating in crisis-hit markets joined them soon after. But this was compensated by the addition of new clients – small and medium business that saw in the monitoring reports and media analyses useful tools that could help them withstand the crisis more easily.

The market fell slightly this year, but will remain close to last year’s value of €5 million. In Romania, independent agencies, such as Media Image Group, Media Trust, Argus, B Media, Media Clipping, Quick Monitoring Media, and organizations such as Media Monitoring Agency and Alfacont or media agencies (Mediafax) provide customer-centric documentation, analyses or copies of media content.

Even if the market is expected to remain around last year’s values, profits will be hard to make, said Mateescu. In Romania, media monitoring services are four times cheaper than in at least 10 EU countries. With nearly 250 clients, such as Carrefour, Dacia, Raiffeisen Bank, ING Group, OMV-Petrom, Orange, Vodafone, P&G and Unilever, Media Image reported €1.2 mln revenues last year, and only €7,438 profit. Turnover may increase this year by around 2-5% which would help the company return positive YoY results.