The slide in metropolitan television advertising has continued despite passing the hard comparison month of May.
Advertising spend on metropolitan free-to-air television networks, as measured by media agency bookings, closed the June quarter down more than 17%, according to insiders.
Early numbers from Standard Media Index (SMI), not yet made public, show a 15.7% fall for the month of June, following 17% down in May.
May was skewed by comparison to intense government and political ad spend in the lead up to the May 21 federal election.
The weakness continued in June with metropolitan free-to-air TV advertising in a slow market overshadowed by economic uncertainty and dipping consumer confidence.
A bright spot is a lift in automotive advertising on television, according to insiders.
The overall TV advertising market surged 19% in 2021 to $2.8 billion, racing past 2019’s pre-COVID $2.6 billion.
Since then the market has started a slide, down 2% in 2022 and accelerating in 2023.
Nine Entertainment told the market in May it still expects to end the 2023 financial year with lower revenue than last year.
The media group expects total television advertising revenue for the financial year to the end of June to be lower by a single digital percentage compared to 2022.
This is seen as a "strong outcome" against the backdrop of an uncertain economy.
Over at Seven, that media group identified further costs to cut as the television advertising market gets squeezed.
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