Ad spend falls 7.3% after 2 months of growth, TV takes a hit

The Australian media agency market fell in January, with total ad spend back -7.3% year-on-year following two consecutive months of growth in November and December.

A significant factor was the moving of the Australian Open to February due to COVID-19,  and TV took a significant hit as a result with a -5.3% reduction in bookings and down -2% in overall spend.

Such reduction in TV spend was played into the hands of the continued growth of the digital media sector (+1.8% growth year-on-year), which allowed it to surpass TV as the largest media in national marketer ad spend for the first time.