Guideline SMI: Advertising spend still in a slump

Nathan Jolly

March 2, 2026 4:01

Guideline SMI: Advertising spend still in a slump

Advertising remains down

Advertising spend from Australian media agencies was down 6.5% for January, according to Guideline SMI’s monthly figures.

Most sectors suffered a year-on-year drop for January, with just out-of-home, digital video, and cinema seeing improvements.

The out-of-home sector rose a modest 1.3%, while digital video rose by 10.9%.

Cinema advertising was up 37% year-on-year — which seems impressive until you consider it’s coming off the back of a 24.9% drop in January 2025.

Large declines in travel ad spend (down 22.8% year-on-year) and government spending (-9.5%) have dragged the entire industry down.

Television advertising fell by 11.3%, radio dropped by 11%, and digital audio fell by 1.1%.

News publishing advertising was down by 6.1%, with a 7% fall in newspaper ads slightly curtailed by a 3.8% drop in digital news advertising.

Magazines had the worst month of all, with the sector falling by 12.9% overall, with a print magazine decline of 16.7% tempered by a 7.2% drop in digital.

Guideline SMI APAC managing director Jane Ractliffe remains optimistic, pointing to improving ad demand in New Zealand (total bookings back by 0.2%), which she said is a sign our market is on the cusp of returning to growth.

The digital video market also remains healthy, with local streamers leading the charge.

“In Australia we’ve seen double-digit growth in streaming revenues from the established streamers such as Nine, Foxtel and Southern Cross and the market is also being buoyed by newer entrants such as Amazon Prime,” Ractliffe said.

“As a result, streaming has been the fastest-growing digital sector in our market for a year.”