Global media markets can bid goodbye to 2015 and happily usher in the new year.

So says marketing intelligence firm Warc, which has released its global ad spend forecast for 2016. According to its number crunching, analysis and past years’ experience, the company predicts a 4.4% increase in global ad spend in 2016, which doubles the 2015 growth rate.

Those numbers deflate slightly when inflation is taken into account, amounting to 1.1% growth in 2015 and an expected 2.3% in 2016.

Total advertising spend across the 12 markets studied is estimated at USD $414 billion at current prices, which is about $325 billion when inflation is taken into account. That figure is still $8 billion below a pre-global economic crisis high.

James McDonald, data analyst at Warc, said in a press release that digital growth and growth in ad tech have propelled a change in media spending. “Programmatic trading is becoming commonplace, galvanizing spend on so-called traditional media such as outdoor, radio and indeed TV. More is being spent to engage with the ‘always on’ consumer, and this has led to internet becoming the largest ad medium among our 12 major markets.”

However, most growth is expected to take place in markets far from Canada. India and China will see the most ad spend growth at 13% and 6.9% respectively. The U.S. will see a 4.9% growth in media spend but most of that growth is attributable to a major sporting event (the Rio Olympics) and a major political event (the U.S. presidential elections – God help us all).

In Canada, however, which was one of the 12 major markets that were part of the Warc study, growth is expected to be 2%. Taking into account predicted inflation, however, Canada is likely to see zero growth in 2016. In current prices the forecast reflects a 0.3 decrease in percentage points since its mid-year growth estimate of 2.3%.

U.S. television is expected to see a 4.8% increase in 2016 ($175 billion), the largest single chunk of advertising in any market and medium. That figure shows a .5% increase since Warc’s last forecast for 2016. While ad spend for TV is estimated to have fallen by 2.5% in 2015, the forecast for 2016 sees a 2.9% increase on account of the major, single-year events mentioned above.

Medium-wise, the internet is expected to be the largest advertising medium in the new year, seeing a 17.4% growth in 2016 and a 12.2% growth in 2015. Of the 12 markets studied, internet is already the top medium for ad spend in six of them, Canada included.

Overall ad spend on cinema, out-of-home and radio will increase by 2.2%, 2.3% and .3% respectively. However, print – both newspapers and magazines – will continue to see a slide in ad revenue of 6.5% and 7.7% respectively.

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