TV and internet are still the major sources of advertising in Thailand, says Media Intelligence.
According to its April report on total media expenditure, TV and internet are the main channels for brands and advertisers to deliver messages to consumers because of their versatility and convenience.
Pawat Ruangdejworachai, media director of the agency, said despite ad expenditures on TV dropping slightly from the last two months as Thai series Love Destiny comes to an end, TV still represents the largest media spending in the country.
Mr Pawat said even as online media grows considerably, digital TV media outlets are still powerful in terms of engagement with mass audiences, with other channels especially designed for niches, such as urban dwellers.
"Traditional media like TV are not really losing popularity, but growth is small because of the huge base, while online media is growing from scratch," he said.
Overall media expenditure in April stood at 7.28 billion baht, with TV accounting for 3.98 billion, or 55%, while internet made up 1.19 billion, or 16%.
Thais spent 39% of their time on traditional media and 61% on digital media. The time spent online is 4.2 hours a day, increasing by 17% from last year.
Outdoor media accounts for 6% or 444 million baht, transit 6% or 413 million, cinema 3% or 213 million, cable TV 2% or 146 million, newspapers 5% or 395 million, radio 4% or 325 million, magazines 1% or 90 million and in-store is 1% or 78 million.
The company forecast Thailand's media expenditure will grow by 6% to reach 91 billion baht this year based on growing online and out-of-home media outlets, as well as the positive outlook for the economy.
Thailand's TV operator rankings were still fluctuating in April.
According to Nielsen Thailand, BBTV's Channel 7 ranked No.1 in terms of viewership in May, followed by BEC World's Channel 3 HD, Mono29, WorkPoint TV, RS's Channel 8 and GMM Grammy's ONE HD.
Thailand's banner advertising is expected to be the largest segment in the digital advertising market this year, says Statista, a statistics portal website, expected to reach 6.6 billion baht in 2018.
However, the Asia-Pacific region has gigantic internet usage, hosting more than half of the world's 3.6 billion users. Asia-Pacific also accounts for 60% of new users coming online over the 2013-2018 period, according to the latest data from Euromonitor International.
Statista reported banner advertising is the rising star among digital advertising segments, including video advertising, search advertising, social media advertising and classifieds.
In Thailand, the spending on digital media has been growing rapidly in the last five years.
Digital consumers leverage connectivity for everything, from social networking to online shopping.