Subscription TV ad revenue approaching $400m
Australia’s 200 subscription TV channels bring in about 10% of the advertising revenue of Free TV, new figures from pay TV body ASTRA suggest.
According to data for the second half of 2011, advertising on subscription TV grew by 3.75% to nearly $213.6m compared to 2010.
During the same period, the free to air networks brought in just under $2.1bn according to data released by Free TV earlier this month – a drop of about 4%.
The revenue stats – compiled by Ernst & Young for the subscription TV industry – cover channels on both Foxtel and Austar, which are currently awaiting regulatory approval for a merger.
Over the whole of 2011, pay TV brought in nearly $394m.
The figures are for advertising only and do not include revenue from subscribers. Last week, Foxtel revealed that it had 1.66m subscribers.
ASTRA CEO Petra Buchanan, claimed: “Greater premium quality content and a strong commitment to innovation enable STV to continue to satisfy consumer demand and evolve with viewing habits.
However, the growth of pay TV advertising appears to have halved in the last six months. Six months ago, the growth was running at an annual 7.4%.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large. He returned to Mumbrella as Publisher in January 2025
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This is a bad result for pay TV.
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10% is still too low given the share of viewing STV takes.
Fair enough its slightly cheaper to buy so you can’t pro rata viewing to spend, and not strictly relevant if your running regional (ie ESB only), but realistically you should be working to a minimum of 25% of (National) spend – more against some audiences – if you aren’t, you’re not buying TV properly.
(no I don’t work for MCN, Ignite or any other STV ad sales team)
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This is why I cancelled Foxtel last month.
Why was I paying for an endless stream of funeral and life insurance garbage? It was insulting.
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