Whilst adspend is growing, the latest data clearly indicates that the positive adspend trend seen in the last couple of years is clearly slowing down. A five year trend shows that the total adspend for the period March 2012 to February 2013 has increased by only 6% to R34,452 million. This is after two years of good growth (18 & 12%).
A look at the split by media type shows that TV continues to grow its share - up to 47% - at the expense of print, which has shown a consistent decline over the past five years. Radio has shown good growing to reach its highest level in five years at 15.6%.
Within TV, we see a continuous growth in the DSTV share, which is up to 33% from 20% five years ago. This growth is mostly at the expense of SABC stations but M-Net has lost share whilst e.tv has remained relatively static.
A look at print shows that year on year expenditure has not really declined. Rather print growth has been at a lower level than other media, which manifests itself in reduced share.
Within print, daily newspapers have the lion's share at 38% but it must be remembered that from a revenue point of view there are five or even six issues a week, compared to other weekly or monthly titles.
