Cricket lifts Nine and Ten in December ad revenues, print still weak
Wiltshire
Free-to-air TV enjoyed a big bounce in the December Standard Media Index figures with The Ashes helping Nine to a huge 45.8 per cent share of spend from media agencies in the sector, Ten enjoying 6.2 per cent revenue growth.
Overall the advertising industry grew six per cent in the month, although print continued its steep decline, with newspapers posting a 15% decline in revenues and magazines down 19.7 per cent overall.
However, a discrepancy in a $6.15m booking may mean Nine’s numbers means the revenue of $76.7m for the month was overstated, with rivals Ten describing the report as “meaningless”, adding: “The confusion over the Nine numbers – and the questions that confusion raises – make a mockery of the SMI system.”
Nine Entertainment Co’s sales boss Peter Wiltshire said the decision of an agency to bill a client for activity throughout the year was not their responsibility and they had no knowledge of it happening, but said it helped to balance the overall share for the network across the year, with its figures underreported on SMI since March because of this.
The revised figures show Seven had a 33.1 per cent share, and Ten 21 per cent.
Wiltshire added: “In terms of the December numbers obviously we’re delighted, and it was helped a lot by the cricket. While we didn’t see a lot of extra revenue coming into us because of the strong performance, it has helped drive extra sales for the One Day International series, as there is still a lot of interest in Australia v England because of the result.
“But December for us is what January will be for Seven because it has the tennis.”
ZenithOptimedia CEO Ian Perrin said the overall increase was a good sign for the market, which picked up over the year by 2.4 per cent on 2012, with agencies billing $7.54bn.
“There was a really strong final quarter, particularly for free-to-air TV which was mostly drive by Nine,” he said. “Ten had a strong December with the Big Bash proving popular and have started clawing back ratings they had lost, so with that platform to cross-promote their programs it could be the start of a revival. That would be good for the industry.”
Simon Ryan, CEO of Carat, told Mumbrella: “I think the total ad market grew about five per cent in the last six months of the year, which is a positive sign. With free-to-air TV growing 12 per cent in December and for Nine to grab so much of that is impressive, but it’s good to have three competitors competing.”
On print Perrin said he expected further large reductions to continue this year, with reduced readerships and more sophisticated metrics to measure digital ad revenues, which were up 22.9 per cent for December, while cinema posted a 32.5 per cent increase, outdoor a 12.4 per cent leap while radio dropped 2.4 per cent.
Alex Hayes
Is Nine ‘cooking the books’?
Me thinks so…….
User ID not verified.