While the market isn't exactly surging, it has received a shot in the arm with April recording its strongest figures in six years, but Harold Mitchell has said the figure was “expected”.
According to Standard Media Index (SMI), revenue through agency bookings jumped 2.2% year-on-year in April to $569.8 million, which is the highest April figure SMI has recorded in the six years it has collected data. It is the largest result since 2008, when agencies booked $562.3 million worth of media.
Apart from digital, the strongest performer has been subscription television, recording 15% hrowth.
While recent reports have often been negative, with Mediabrands' MagnaGlobal recently downgrading its forecast for 2012, Aegis Media Pacific executive chairman Harold Mitchell said the result falls in line with his company's expectations.
“We've been saying there will be growth of about 3% for the full year," Mitchell told AdNews. "This growth is anticipated. The economy is good. The political environment is not great, and that doesn't help confidence, which can in turn slow retail. But Australian business overall is doing well.”
However, MagnaGlobal managing director Victor Corones told AdNews: “What's more of a conern is the underlying trend. While a month can look positive, the market overall is still not as strong as people would have liked. You are going to see bounce from month to month. We still don't expect quarter two to be very strong.”
Digital once again led the pack, with agency bookings jumping 25.9% to $79.6 million.
Television also saw a lift of 2.8%, after seeing declines in the first three months of the year. The television market was driven largely by subscription TV which jumped 15%, compared to 1.2% growth for metropolitan TV.
Meanwhile, radio saw double digit gains, surging 12.8%.
Print saw declines again, with magazines falling 5.6% and newspapers dropping 14.5%, but most publishers reported large gains in digital media. Outdoor also suffered with a 5.6% drop.
While the April figure is the highest recorded in six years, the 2012 calendar year is still sluggish. The first four months of 2012 have only seen 0.4% growth year on year. The 2012 financial year is worse still, with the July 2011 to April 2012 period seeing a 0.6% decline.
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