Global media inflation will speed up in 2026, thanks largely to the FIFA World Cup, according to the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA).
The WFA has today (15 April) published its biannual Outlook report, and it’s predicting that media inflation will be 4.4% this year.
It’s a noticeable but not drastic increase over 2025, when media inflation was 4%.
Much of the increase is driven by the US, where hosting the FIFA World Cup is expected to drive prices up by a third, to 4%.
The price hikes will be felt across traditional media in the US, but mainly linear TV, OOH and DOOH. And they will likely also be acutely felt in Canada and Mexico, which are both co-hosting the tournament in June and July, as well as in all participating nations, to a lesser extent.
Global linear TV prices will inflate at the fastest rate of any media channel in 2026, according to the WFA, at 7.7%. In the UK, linear TV inflation will increase from 2.3% to 11.3%, year on year.
The report suggests that this is due to advertisers competing for dwindling audiences on linear TV.
And while audiences and brand budgets are moving into CTV in most markets, the price has been kept down in Europe because of an explosion of available inventory. While, in the US, the price of CTV advertising has even declined, because of a relative lack of demand from brands.
The WFA’s Outlook report considers forecasts from market leaders across the global media industry — including Dentsu, Havas, Publicis, Omnicom, The7stars, Cortex, Ebiquity and Mediasense — to make its predictions.
