There has been a decline in advertising expenditure over the past year, despite the growth in economic activity. Media Commentary, published by The Media

Bureau, said there had been a fall of five per cent in spending in the first quarter of this year, compared to the same period in 1996.

When allowance is made for inflation, the drop is almost 7 per cent.

Television and outdoor advertising showed growth, while print was down by 19 per cent. Magazine advertising spending showed an even greater fall off, at 29 per cent.

RTE Radio was up 10 per cent and television up 14 per cent, helped significantly by an increase of 25 per cent in January. Cinema advertising was up 7 per cent.

The RTE channels had 55 per cent of all adult television viewing last month, down from 57 per cent in May. The BBC channels had 15 per cent, while the combined satellite channels had 14 per cent. UTV had 10 per cent and Channel 4

had 5 per cent. In multi-channel areas, the figure for last month had RTE's share at 41 per cent, the BBC channels at 19 per cent, the satellites at 20 per cent, UTV at 13 per cent and Channel 4 at 7 per cent.

Meanwhile, the Media Bureau is predicting that RTE's advertising prices will rise by about 10 per cent, well ahead of inflation, while most other media will have a lift of about 5 per cent. Outdoor rates will rise by about 10 per cent also.