Kuala lumpur: Growth in Malaysia's advertising expenditure (adex) continues to be driven almost entirely by digital platforms, while traditional media segments continue to decline, according to Kenanga Research.
According to BERNAMA News Agency, advertisers in Malaysia continue to gravitate toward digital channels, driven by rising social media engagement and growing preference for programmatic, data-driven ad buying across search engine platforms. "As a result, legacy media continues to cede market share, a trend we do not expect to reverse anytime soon," Kenanga Research stated.
The research house highlighted that while Magna Global, an international media investment and intelligence company, expects Malaysia's total adex to grow 6.4 percent year-on-year in 2025, the growth is concentrated entirely in digital formats, notably social media and search. "Ongoing declines in television, print, and radio mean that headline industry growth does not translate into recovery for traditional media players," it explained.
Kenanga Research further noted that digital advertising accounted for about 77 percent of total Malaysian adex in 2024, led by social media (41 percent), search engines (24 percent), and other digital channels (12 percent), underscoring a decisive shift in advertiser behavior. "Magna Global forecasts digital media's share of total adex to rise to 85 percent by 2029, and television's share to narrow to five percent," it said, adding that this reflects digital media's superior reach, engagement, and targeting precision.
Moreover, Kenanga Research emphasized that artificial intelligence-driven programmatic tools and real-time analytics further enhance campaign optimization and return on investment, reinforcing digital media's structural advantage over traditional media's broad but largely passive reach. The research house also noted that legacy media remain unable to penetrate digital advertising, with traditional media operators in Malaysia continuing to have a relatively small footprint in the digital adex space.
As such, Kenanga Research reiterated its 'underweight' rating on the media sector, citing intensifying competition from digital players and persistent cost drag from legacy infrastructure.