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Nine collects biggest TV revenue share for first time in 13 years

Nine pulled the largest television revenue share in 2017, beating Seven for the first time in 13 years, new figures audited by KPMG reveal.

Nine grew its revenue share by 3.1 points in 2017, to a 38.3% share of revenue, achieving the largest share for the December half year and the 2017 calendar year.

Meanwhile, Seven lost 2.2 points, with a 37.9% share, and Ten dipped by 0.9 points to 23.8%.

In February last year, the television industry’s new marketing body Think TV announced the launch of a new “Total TV” headline number, which also covers spend on SBS and Foxtel – although SBS declined to participate this time around.

Such data was previously released by Free TV Australia and was the outside world’s main means of getting a snapshot of the networks’ individual sales performances and comparative advertising share.

Nine’s revenue share jump in 2017 was assisted by ratings successes including Australian Ninja Warrior and The Block.

Although the most-watched programs for the year were dominated by sports broadcasts, it was Nine which dominated the year in entertainment. The winner announcement of this year’s The Block averaged 2.533m metro viewers and The Block’s grand final episode managed 2.049m.

In addition, the final stage of Nine’s Ninja Warrior attracted 2.248m and the grand final achieved 2.185m.

Source: ThinkTV

Nine’s broadcast video on demand platform 9Now secured 37.9% of the digital market, helping Nine grow its digital revenue by 76.6%. The total BVOD market grew by 23.4%.

Hugh Marks, CEO of Nine said the result was humbling and validated the media company’s strategic focus.

“For us to post this result is great recognition of the strength of the content we create and its resonance with Australian audiences. It is a clear signal of the significant business impact that reaching the right audiences is having for advertisers,” Marks said.

“As we move into 2018, I am excited by the strong performance of the new season of Married at First Sight across both television and digital and the year on year growth we have seen on both platforms. This sets Nine up for another strong year as we continue to evolve and transform our business.”

Michael Stephenson, chief sales officer at Nine, said audience growth in key advertising demographics contributed to the growth. 

“We have a programming strategy focused on delivering audience growth against the key demographics that are important to advertisers – P16-39, P25-54, and grocery buyers with children,” Stephenson said.

“Our audience growth measured against the key demographics, and the great opportunities for brands to integrate into and leverage our local Australian content across every screen, has been a major contributor to our revenue result.”

Kurt Burnette, Seven West Media’s chief revenue officer, also responded to the results:“There was certainly more competition last year than for many years, so we’re especially proud to win the ratings year – meaning that, once again, more Australians watched 7 than anyone else. For advertisers that scale means and counts for a lot.

“But that’s history – we’re now looking forward to 2018. We’ve started the year again as the most watched Network, with our number 1 shows MKR, The Good Doctor, Seven News, The Chase and Home and Away all performing very strongly. We’ve got the Winter Olympics coming up, followed by the Commonwealth Games and then the AFL, which grew audiences last year and we expect to grow again this year.  We’re bolstering the schedule with proven shows from Fox and an exciting number of new shows to add to the schedule and to the  phenomenal growth we’ve seen for 7plus.

“All up, we’re coming back harder than ever into what is now a positive TV market. We’ll do what we have proven we do very well: create and promote across the many screens of Seven.”

The total television market including metropolitan free-to-air, regional free-to-air and subscription TV recorded combined revenues of $2.17b, 0.7% down on the same six months a year earlier.

While the total television market was slightly down, the result shows signs of momentum versus the previous year, when revenue fell by 3.1% in the six months to December 2016.

In the December half, the metro free-to-air TV market grew by 1.4% to $1.5 billion. In total, the metro television market grew by  1.9% to $1.54b. This result marks the first time the metro free to air television market has grown in 3.5 years.

In January this year, Deutsche media analyst, Entcho Raykovski, foreshadowed the results: “The Metro FTA TV market appears to have staged a level of recovery in 1H18… This is generally consistent with our discussions with media buyers, who have suggested to us that the TV market has benefitted in 1H18from (1) some of the issues with digital advertising (lack of measurability and potential for brand damage), (2) lobbying efforts from Think TV, who have emphasised to advertisers the value delivered by TV, and (3) the success of new formats like Australian Ninja Warrior providing increased confidence in the medium.”

ThinkTV’s chief executive, Kim Portrate, said of the latest results: “The Total TV ad market performed well, in fiercely competitive conditions, with the rapid growth in BVOD revenue reflecting marketers’ confidence in the power, reach and efficacy of today’s multi-platform TV.”

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