Advertising revenue that once circulated mainly among Hungarian media companies is increasingly flowing to international technology platforms. This shift reflects broader global trends: digital platforms grow their market share through sophisticated data, targeting and automated ad systems.
The numbers in Hungary
According to the Hungarian Advertising Association's 2025 Media Pie (Médiatorta), media spending rose to 415.9 billion forints, while the total communications market reached 758.7 billion forints. The media market expanded nominally by 8.7 percent. The biggest beneficiaries of that growth were global digital platforms: they captured 36.1 percent of total media spending and hold a 65 percent share of digital advertising expenditures.
Domestic digital content providers secured 19.6 percent of the total media pie and 35 percent of the digital market. In practice, this means the competition for ad revenues in Hungary is not only among local players but also against global rivals such as Google, Meta, YouTube and TikTok.
Why global platforms dominate
Google and Meta possess data assets and targeting capabilities far beyond those of any single local actor. Advertisers increasingly value not only reach but also precision targeting and data-driven campaign optimization. Programmatic and automated advertising systems are growing rapidly: in Hungary these systems represented close to 9 billion forints last year and expanded by more than 20 percent year-on-year.
Retail media has also emerged as a new competitor: large retail chains sell advertising on their own platforms and use direct purchase data for targeting. Influencer marketing built on social media is another expanding slice of the ad pie — influencer-related spending in Hungary exceeded 8 billion forints last year, a rise of more than 30 percent in a year. Some ad budgets therefore shift to players that are not traditional media companies.
AI's double-edged role
Artificial intelligence represents both a threat and an opportunity for traditional publishers. AI lowers barriers to producing content and can automate campaign creation, but automation has also led to job losses: globally, tens of thousands lost jobs in recent years due to cost-cutting, digitization projects and AI-driven automation.
Meta has signaled plans to automate large parts of campaign creation and optimization. Hungarian publishers must therefore simultaneously grow digital revenues, cut costs and adapt to platform-driven rules and processes.
Regulator findings and sector insights
Research from the National Media and Infocommunications Authority (Nemzeti Média- és Hírközlési Hatóság, NMHH) underscores the market transformation. Dr. Szabó László Zsolt, NMHH director for media market cooperation and research, says technological innovation and changing consumption patterns now shape the market as much as traditional channels.
NMHH data indicate about one-fifth of Hungarian companies already use some form of artificial intelligence, with higher adoption among larger firms. NMHH expert Soós Edina stressed that AI is no longer a distant prospect but part of daily operations in advertising — notably in content production, campaign planning and optimization.
Audience competition is shifting as well. NMHH department head Kövecses Ágnes noted podcast consumption in Hungary rose from 40 percent to 66 percent over three years, and more than half of listeners encounter ads in these programs. The trust relationship between podcast hosts and audiences increasingly attracts advertisers in an increasingly fragmented media environment.
The key question ahead
For the Hungarian media sector, the next few years will be defined less by which domestic outlet outranks another and more by how much of the advertising market national content producers — broadcasters, radio stations, online publishers and ad sellers — can retain while competing with the world's largest technology companies. AI and automation can provide tools to boost efficiency but also intensify competition, pushing market players to develop new business models such as retail media and influencer partnerships to sustain revenue.
