While traditional advertising venues in many parts of the world are feeling the pinch of expanding digital business, in Australia two of four are actually picking up share, and one of the others is by far the raw cash leader.
According to The Australian, a report from advertising consultancy Standard Media Index compared market share for five media, comparing results for a year ending 9/30/09 to a sounding taken in January 2007.
Newspapers, which are suffering mightily in the US, actually picked up a modicum of market share over that period, moving from 19.42% to 19.50%.
Radio picked up share as well, going from 7.41% to 7.85%.
Magazines, also did not fare so well, but at least remained competitive, dropping from 8.87% to 7.24%.
Television lost its claim to over half the market, going from 51.00% to 49.04% — but that drop was not the result in a loss of any money spent on the medium.
Digital grew, but modestly, managing to edge into third place among the five in going from 5.00% to 8.29%.
RBR-TVBR observation: We have no great expectation, unfortunately, that conditions in Australia will translate to the US media market any time soon, if ever. Rather, we hope for Australia’s sake that it doesn’t slip into the US pattern. It seems likely that the trend toward digital will eventually take hold Down Under, and since it has to get share from somewhere, it will come out of the hide of the incumbents.
