Ad spending on traditional broadcast was down in the first half of the year, while digital broadcast is booming, according to figures from Matrix Solutions.
Looking that the buying being done on its platform, Matrix found that broadcast was down 0.83%. Excluding political ad spending, broadcast as sales were down 5.86%.
Digital broadcast was up 13.21%, and up 13.03% excluding political ads.
Spending on radio was virtually flat but down 0.38% excluding political ad spending.
National spending did better than local spending. National ad spending was up 4.69% including political, while local was down 2.89%.
“According to our data, overall ad spend throughout the year, to date, has remained relatively flat when including the buoyancy that always comes from political campaigns, and without there’s a clear contraction," said Mark Gorman, CEO at Matrix Solutions. “It’s a trend that’s continued from the findings of our 2017 Ad Spend Report, which means for these traditional platforms, they need to better arm themselves to grab a larger slice of the overall advertising spend pie to remain competitive.”
Matrix Solutions said that the industries that increases spending included services, up 6.62%, financial services, up 5.16% and home improvement, up 0.54%
The categories showing the biggest declines included automotive and auto-related, down 27.15%, grocery and food, down 19.49% and restaurants, dropping 18.53%.
Matrix Solutions looked at $11 billion worth of media ad sales deals in compiling its report.
