Ad market flat but Nine and Ten record summer advertising boost

The ad market remained flat in November with the latest Standard Media Index (SMI) numbers showing overall bookings declined one per cent or $7.2m, but many of Australia’s major TV networks recorded a lift in bookings in the run up to Christmas.

While the latest SMI numbers show the overall television market down 0.4 per cent both the Nine and Ten networks saw uplifts, with revenue growth of 5.5 per cent and 3.7 per cent in November.

The pre-Christmas boost means that, as of last month, the Ten Network ‘s revenue was up 0.9 per cent year on year to a 21.2 per cent market share, Nine were up 2.2 per cent to 38.3 per cent, while Seven retained the largest market share with 40.5 per cent but was down 3.1 per cent on last month. 

According to the SMI numbers the overall market was worth $720.9m and while it was notionally down it is expected late digital bookings will push it marginally into the positive.

The overall television market was worth $353.8m down 0.5 per cent, with metro TV falling 0.1 per cent to $261.5m while Pay-TV rose 2.4 per cent to $39m.

Newspaper and magazines have again continued their double digit revenue declines with the mediums down 17.0 per cent to $84.2m and 15.9 per cent to $30.7m respectively.

Radio was up 2.9 percent in November with revenue of $47.9m.

Outdoor was down 3 per cent to $63m while cinema had an erratic result year-on-year, down 36 per cent to $4.6m, still above the levels of 2011.