TV networks hit by $300m revenue drop
The scale of the challenge facing Australia’s TV networks has become clear, with new figures revealing that around $300m left the market in the last year, a decline of nearly 8%.
Ad revenue was down from $3.8bn for the financial year 2007-08 to $3.5bn in the financial year just ended, a fall of 7.8%, the figures compiled by Free TV Australia revealed.
And in the shorter term, ad revenue for Australia’s three main commercial TV broadcasters dropped by well over 20% in the first six months of this year compared to the previous six months. In the first half of this calender year, ad revenue to the three broadcasters was just under $1.5bn. In the last six months of 2008, Nine, Seven and Ten had enjoyed revenues of just under $2bn.
The Sydney market has seen the most dramatic drop in the last six months – down from $566m in the last half of 2008 to $427m in the first half of this year – a decline of almost 25%. In Melbourne the decline was nearly as bad – down more than 23% in the same period from $419m to $322m.
