The NSW government has opened a tender for its media agency services contract, following growing industry speculation that it would do so this year.

The tender was officially launched on Friday, with the state government noting that it is “looking to establish a roster of full-service communication partners to secure a better way of working and delivering effective advertising messages to the people of NSW”.

“The objective is to deliver a successful media planning and buying service that is structured effectively and appropriately to meet the current and future advertising needs of the individual government departments and agencies, and that best represents the NSW government,” the tender description read.

“The NSW government aims to realise greater efficiencies through technological advances in media buying and planning. Transparency and efficiency in resource and fee structure will enable all partners to succeed against a large volume of work.”

UM currently handles the media buying for the state government, having won it in 2013 from MediaCom. The agency also sits on the NSW government’s media planning panel with Blue 449, MediaCom and OMD.