The annual growth of traditional advertising in the Chinese market was only 4.5 percent in 2012, the lowest in five years, according to a CTR report issued on Thursday.

Radio continued to lead growth in traditional media with an 8.9 percent annual growth in advertising, but it appeared to sag sharply after recording 27.8 percent growth in the previous year.

TV kept its advantage among traditional media outlets in 2012, with its advertising taking the lion's share in the advertising market, and was up 6.4 percent year-on-year.

Ad expenditure on newspapers declined 7.5 percent year-on-year, the report showed.