TV posts strong recovery but overall February ad spend down 2.6%

Television continues to lead the way as the Australian media market recovers from COVID-19, and it was one of the few sectors that reported growth as ad spend fell 2.6% year-on-year overall.

Ad spend in Australia dipped to $557.9 million for the month of February, an improvement on January when it fell -7.3%, according to Standard Media Index (SMI) data.

Television ad spend grew by 8.5%, with metropolitan TV up 12% in the latest figures released by SMI. The Australian Open’s delay from January to February was a key factor in helping push spend higher.

After several consecutive months of strong growth, barely slowing down throughout a COVID-impacted 2020, digital spend was up just 1.2%. That result can be attributed to a fall in spend for search (-8.4%), despite growth in Social Media (+12.7) and Social Media (+12.3%) ad spend.