PARIS: Net advertising revenues in France continued to fall in 2013 with the industry declining at 3.6% and only the mobile and internet sectors showing any growth.

Latest figures from IREP – L'Institut de Recherches et d'Etudes Publicitaires – indicated that the market was worth €13.3bn. Over the past two years it said around €1bn in advertising revenues had been lost and the market was, in current terms, worth the same as it had been in 2004.

Mobile was one of the few bright spots in an otherwise gloomy picture. Mobile display advertising was up 55%, growing almost twice as fast as in 2012 when it increased 29%, but this was from a very low base.

Internet advertising carried on growing, albeit it at a significantly slower pace of just 3.1%, a 4.7% rise in search being offset by a -1.0% dip in display.

IREP also drew attention to one particular part of the outdoor market, where the transit segment had registered a 2.5% increase.

For the rest, near equilibrium was as good as it got: outdoor furniture had remained more or less steady with a -0.1% dip, while radio saw a -0.4% decrease.

Television (-3.5%), newspapers and magazines (-8.4%), outdoor (-1.7%) and cinema (-13.3%) all carried on the declines seen in 2012. Directories (-5.8%) and direct mail (-7.5%) also fell.

Looking back over a five year period, advertising revenues for traditional media were generally underperforming economic growth, said the IREP, but it argued that there were wider factors than the economy to account for these poor figures.

A number of influential events had altered people's media behaviour and advertising investments during the course of the past decade, including the arrival of TNT, the national digital terrestrial television service, the launch of video sharing platforms and social networking sites and the introduction of smartphones and tablets.

For the immediate future, IREP expected that the market would stabilise with the first half of 2014 remaining at the same level as the final quarter of 2013. Looking further ahead the second half could bring some growth, helped by events such as the FIFA World Cup and Brazil and the possibility of growing economic confidence.

Data sourced from IREP; additional content by Warc staff