SBS is claiming to be the only free-to-air TV network to have increased its share of the 16 to 54 audience this year, with 4.2% growth.
When the official ratings period comes to a close on December 1, SBS will show a 4% all people growth, while its share of free-to-air viewing will increase by 6%, according to figured from OzTam.
Its share of the highest socio-economic group, OG1, is also up by 13.2%, while it claims the other free-to-air networks have lost 145 of their audience.
The broadcaster has also increased its TV ad revenue by 38% for the year.
But the Seven Network is also claiming audience growth. “We’re up 0.3% in total viewers in primetime on last year. We’re also up 0.4% in 25-54s on last year. It’s three consecutive years of audience growth for us,” Seven’s corporate spokesman Simon Francis said.
“We are slightly ahead of our forecast for the island breaks strategy and envisage the trend to continue in the second half of the financial year as the message works its way through to clients,” SBS director of commercial affairs Richard Finlayson said.
An SBS commissioned study by research company ada.tv to quantify how island breaks affected viewer ‘ad avoidance’ behaviour found that SBS viewers paid 45% more attention to SBS’s island breaks, compared to the average attention paid to the frequent and longer ad breaks on the Seven, Nine and Ten networks.
"The result was over 100 per cent among 16-39s, arguably the hardest demographic to reach and engage, as they find themselves confronted with myriad entertainment options,” Finlayson said.
“Audiences are switching off during long ad breaks and we argue that clients should insist on metrics to measure the number of viewers actually watching and engaging in their commercials, not just the programs.”
In online, SBS said it would double revenues this year and beat targets in radio buoyed by strong Federal and State government spending.
