UrBC, Moscow, August 14, 2015. Russia's advertising market shrank by 16% in the first half of 2015 compared with a year earlier and thus came down to 138bn RUR, Interfax refers to Russia's Communication Agencies Association (AKAR) as stating.

The AKAR reports TV advertising, the market's largest segment, is down by 22%, down to 61.1bn RUR to 61.6bn RUR. The number of TV commercials dropped by 21% (down to 60.2bn RUR to 60.7bn RUR) on terrestrial channels and by 52% (down to 920m RUR) on non-terrestrial ones.

In the meantime, the online advertising segment increased by 10%, up to 41.6bn RUR to 42bn RUR. This the market's only segment to keep growing, mainly due to contextually targeted ads (these are up by 15%, to 34.5bn RUR to 34.8bn RUR).

Radio ad market sagged by 21%, down to 6.2bn RUR, that of outdoor advertising by 27%, down to 15.5bn RUR, and that of the printed media by 33%, down to 11.4bn RUR.