Media merchant bank Veronis Suhler, in its 15th annual Communications Industry Forecast, said there will be a marked spending slowdown in most media industry segments this year. However, the firm said it’s more optimistic about the near-term future, and predicted that overall industry growth [in the United States] would climb at an annual rate of 5.6 per cent between this year and 2005, outpacing the 5 per cent growth rate of the gross domestic product and reaching $738 billion in total spending by 2005.

According to the Veronis Suhler study, the US cable and satellite television businesses – when combined – were the third-largest revenue generator in terms of advertising spending among communications segments with $63.4 billion. Next year, cable and satellite are expected to turn the tables, becoming the No. 1 communications category in terms of ad spending and overall the largest segment of the communications industry, the study said. Combining the two businesses for revenue-generation purposes, they are expected to hit $75.5 billion.

Veronis Suhler is the owner of PBI Media, publisher of Interspace.