Advertising to people aged 50+ in Poland 2025/2026: television versus the internet

In 2025 the biggest advertisers in Poland were Aflofarm, Media Expert and Lidl, and television remained the largest single advertising medium, with spending of PLN 5.02 billion. People over 50 watch television for 6 hours and 1 minute a day, almost twice as long as the 16–59 group. Online, people aged 55+ make up 18 percent of the audience of ads on Facebook and Instagram. No public measurement for 2025 and 2026, however, says which brands reach this group most effectively.

Who spends the most on advertising in Poland?

Aflofarm has topped the list for years. In 2025 its advertising was worth PLN 2.228 billion at rate-card prices, 15 percent less than a year earlier, and yet it kept first place. It is followed by Terg, the owner of Media Expert, and by Lidl. The Kantar Media measurement covers television, radio, the press, outdoor and cinema, without the internet.

Three of the five companies on this list sell over-the-counter medicines and dietary supplements. The other two are retailers: electronics and a discount chain. Rate-card amounts are counted before discounts, so real budgets are lower, and the ranking shows above all who buys the most advertising time and space.

How much money goes to television and how much to the internet?

According to Publicis Groupe, the whole advertising market in Poland was worth about PLN 14 billion in 2025 and grew by 6.9 percent. Television earned PLN 5.02 billion, 1.2 percent more than a year earlier, which gives it more than a third of the market (that is our calculation). The internet, counted here without online video, had 30.0 percent of the market and grew by 8.7 percent. Online video grew by 17.3 percent.

In the first half of 2026 the gap widened. The market was worth PLN 7.1 billion (+5.6 percent), spending on linear television fell by 2.4 percent, and its share of video spending dropped to 66.1 percent from 70.1 percent a year earlier. Advertising on social media grew fastest: by 19.8 percent.

IAB Polska and PwC give a different amount for the internet: PLN 10.9 billion for 2025. Both amounts are correct. AdEx counts the revenue of online advertising sellers including video, while Publicis estimates net spending according to its own media split. Amounts from these two sources should not be combined in one calculation.

How much time do people aged 50+ spend in front of the TV?

In autumn 2025 people over 50 in Poland watched television for an average of 6 hours and 1 minute a day, 4 minutes longer than a year earlier. The 16–59 group, which the industry calls the commercial group, watched for 3 hours and 8 minutes, and people aged 13–29 for 1 hour and 3 minutes.

50+6 h 01 min

All viewers 4+3 h 52 min

16–593 h 08 min

13–291 h 03 min

Source: Nielsen Media, Total TV, via Press.pl, 1 January 2026.

Nielsen counts Total TV here, meaning everything watched on a TV screen, including streaming services. So this is not only time spent with channels that broadcast advertising breaks. The publication does not give separate values for the 55+, 60+ and 65+ groups.

Are people aged 50+ on the internet?

Yes, and there are more of them every year. According to Statistics Poland (GUS), in 2025 84.4 percent of people aged 55–64 used the internet regularly (a year earlier 82.5 percent), as did 58.8 percent of people aged 65–74 (a year earlier 56.8 percent). On social media, the 55–75 age group is the largest of all: Gemius and PBI put it at 6.96 million real users a month in 2025.

Do online ads reach people aged 55+?

They do, roughly in proportion to their presence on the platform. In August 2026 almost one in five people who saw ads on Facebook and Instagram in Poland was over 55. Sotrender puts this share at 18 percent: 11 percent women and 7 percent men. For the same month NapoleonCat shows a very similar share among Facebook users in Poland: 9 percent in the 55–64 group and 9.2 percent in the 65+ group, about 18 percent in total.

Who the ads are aimed at is another matter. Sotrender last calculated this for 2024: only 10 percent of ads on Meta were targeted at people over 55, and more than 55 percent at people aged 25–44. These two figures describe different measures from different years, so they cannot be turned into a trend. Our interpretation is cautious: advertising reaches people aged 55+ largely as a by-product of broad targeting, not because anyone is speaking to them.

Which brands reach people aged 50+ most effectively?

For 2025 and 2026 this is not known. The last public ranking of brands by reach among people aged 55+ is Sotrender's list for 2024, led by Temu with 552 million ad impressions. We discuss it in a separate article. Sotrender has not published a newer edition. Meta's summary of the 2025 advertising year does not break the audience down by age.

On television, such a ranking requires Nielsen Ad Intel data combined with viewing figures in the 50+ target group. This data is paid for and nobody publishes it in rankings. The advertiser rankings that reach the media count total spending.

What does this mean for campaign planning?

From here on we write conclusions, not data. People over 50 in Poland number 14.9 million. They spend the longest time in front of the TV, and on social media they are the largest group. Advertising money is shifting from television to the internet, and online it reaches this group mainly when a campaign is set up broadly. A brand that wants to speak specifically to people aged 50+ has to plan for it and measure it itself. The market does not publish such a measurement.