The ad market in July was down with the total down 10.4 per cent, or $67.2 million, to $580.3 million following last year’s record high which was driven by federal government spending.
The latest Standard Media Index (SMI) data shows that that there was a 65.8 per cent decrease in government advertising compared with last year, where Labor and Liberal Party advertising accounted for $37.1m ahead of the Federal Election.
Among the major TV networks the Seven Network had a 40.2 per cent share of free-to-air TV revenues (up from 38.7 per cent last year), Nine had a 38.8 per cent (up from 38 per cent) and Ten was 21 per cent (down from 23.4 per cent last year), despite an uptick in ratings for its Commonwealth Games coverage and the latter stages of Masterhchef.
The result puts Seven top of the ladder for revenue January-July 2014 with 41.6 per cent, Nine with 38.1 per cent and Ten with 20.3 per cent.
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The downturn in government advertising saw all media impacted with metropolitan television down 12.6 per cent to $212.1m while subscription television was down 24.4 per cent to $30.4m.
Radio was down 8.8 per cent while newspapers were down 12.4 per cent to $61.6m and magazines were down 16.9 per cent to $17.2m.
Outdoor advertising was the only major media to record an improvement with spend up 2.5 per cent to $56.1m while digital, which normally consistently rises, posted a 2.3 per cent decline recording $101.9m. However late bookings are expected to turn this into a positive result. Cinema fell dramatically year-on-year down 45 per cent recording $3.9m of revenue from the media agencies.
According to SMI total agency bookings are down 2.3 per cent in the calendar year-to-date.
Nic Christensen