Seven West Media has continued to dominate free-to-air advertising revenues, despite the overall metropolitan market shrinking, official figures show.
Australia's No. 1 commercial free-to-air broadcaster accounted for 40.4 per cent of $1.55 billion advertising market in the six months to December 2014, according to Free TV Australia figures.
This compares with 39.74 per cent in the corresponding period from 2013. Rival Nine Entertainment also grew its share from 38.74 per cent to 39.2 per cent.
It came as total metropolitan spend shrank 3 per cent, according to the figures compiled by accounting firm KPMG. It is contrast to the corresponding period in 2013, which saw a 5 per cent rise to $1.603 billion.
Adelaide was the weakest of all capital cities, plunging 5.9 per cent to $104 million. Sydney posted the second sharpest drop, losing 3.7 per cent to $577 million. Melbourne, meanwhile, was the best performer, with a 1.8 per cent decline to $430 million.
Seven and Nine's gains came at the expense of Ten Network Holdings, the share of which dipped from 21.52 per cent to 20.4 per cent.
But the network, which is the subject of four takeover offers, was upbeat about the figures, citing an improvement from January to June 2014 where its share was 20.1 per cent.
"We are heading in the right direction and gaining momentum," Ten's chief sales officer Louise Barrett said.
"So far in the 2014-15 summer, Network Ten has recorded its biggest summer audience in a decade. We have also had a great response from advertisers to the big new brands we have for 2015 – including I'm A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, Shark Tank and Gogglebox – and to the return of V8 Supercars to Ten this year."
According to the latest Standard Media Index Figures, Ten's share of advertising spend rose to 21.6 per cent in December, compared with 20.2 per cent in the same month in 2013.
Ms Barrett said that was the best revenue share for the network since February 2014 and attributed the gains to Twenty20 Big Bash League cricket.
"T20 Big Bash League during December and January has been extremely successful in terms of audience numbers and the revenue we wrote into it. We saw significant growth in our revenue from Big Bash this summer."
