Television Advertising Decline Rejected

2 August 2004

Television Advertising Decline Rejected

The television industry rejects statistics that show any decline in advertising revenue. Industry spokesman, Bruce Wallace, executive director of the NZ Television Broadcasters Council, says the industry reports actual spending which, at $153.0 million, was up $26.5 million or 17.3% on the three months to 31 March 2004.

He said that taking the six months comparison of 2004 against the same period on 2003 showed a revenue increase of 9.4% ($24.0 million) with a total of $279.5 million compared to $255.5 million in 2003.

Mr Wallace said the revenue reported by the NZTBC was collected independently by PriceWaterhouseCoopers and was the actual spending reported by the national broadcasters. They were TVOne, TV2, TV3, C4, Prime and SKY. He said that the only television spending not included is the very small amount generated by regional broadcasters.

He pointed to problems in the advertising revenue data for the same period supplied by Nielsen Media Research which had been used to support claims of an industry downturn. He said that Nielsens accepted that its figures were not as reliable as the industry figures because they used published ratecard data, rather than actual spending. Their accuracy had also been reduced as recently SKY had asked Nielsens not to report most of its ratecard spending. This has lead to a decline in reported data compared to the same period on 2003.

Mr Wallace said that the confusion created by having two sets of figures in the marketplace was regrettable and was being addressed by the NZTBC and Neilsens.

Wallace said that television companies had strong forward bookings which underlined the ongoing recognition by advertisers that television was their medium of choice.

ENDS

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