Media & Marketing /Siobhán O'Connell:Despite a 10 per cent fall in audiences aged between 16 and 24 in the past year, demand for RTÉ advertising slots will again outstrip supply in 2008, according to a forecast from media auditing company Billetts.
But RTÉ's loss of younger viewers is a worrying trend for station bosses. According to analysis of Nielsen data compiled by Billetts, RTÉ's 16-24 audience figures fell 10 per cent in multi-channel viewing and by 4 per cent in national viewing in the past year. The broadcaster's 16-34 audience figures dropped 8 per cent in homes with multi-channel choice, with the young adult audience decreasing at a faster rate on RTÉ 1 than on RTÉ 2.
The reason is competition from TV3 and the plethora of satellite and cable stations, led by Sky.
Says Dave Harland, chief executive of advertising agency OMD Ireland: "RTÉ has done a reasonably good job at maintaining younger audiences, but I don't know how long they can hold back the tide."
According to the Institute of Advertising Practitioners, cable and satellite channels garnered €30 million of the €300 million television advertising spend between January and October 2007.
Sky One sold €7 million worth of airtime to advertisers in Ireland, Sky News took in €4.3 million and Sky Sports attracted an ad spend of €2.3 million.
To put this in context, the ad spend on RTÉ television in the same period was €184 million, while the spend on TV3 was €77 million. Billetts estimates that RTÉ's share of commercial TV revenue was 61 per cent through 2007, the same level that it has been at for the past five years.
Says Nick Slaymaker, TV specialist at media buyer Mindshare: "The biggest trend in the Irish TV market is the growth of digital and it's increasing all the time. Sky now has 510,000 subscribers.
"More choice means audiences will continue to fragment and what's happening now is that Irish audiences are leaking into overseas satellite stations that Irish advertisers cannot buy ad spots on.
It's a pronounced trend and one that we are watching closely."
The drift away from RTÉ has been facilitated by Sky, E4, Viacom and Living offering Irish advertisers an "opt-out" service.
This means that Irish viewers watching these channels only see ads plac
ed by Irish advertisers. Providing an opt-out service can cost a station as much as €500,000, so it's only viable if the audience numbers are substantial.
Other digital channels mulling an opt-out for Ireland include E4+1, Paramount+1, Dave, Sky Sports News, UK Gold and Hallmark.
All these channels also provide competition for TV3, but Harland is encouraged by signs of life at RTÉ's main indigenous rival.
"For the last few years, TV3 has been treading water, but now the station has a new director of programming, Ben Frow, who was involved in creating programmes such as Jamie's Kitchen and Property Ladder.
He should bring significant vibrancy to the TV3 programme schedule with programmes that appeal to younger people. It's hugely reassuring to see some strong competition."
TV3's commercial director Pat Kiely said that he is expecting the station to deliver double-digit revenue growth in 2008 and claimed that the station was the only terrestrial television station in Ireland not to lose market share and audience in 2007.
Despite the slippage among younger viewers, RTÉ's two television channels still deliver large audiences and the medium generally benefited from advertiser confidence in 2007, with expenditure growth estimated at 14 per cent over the past 12 months.
Billetts is predicting that the growth in TV advertising spend will taper back to 6 per cent in 2008 and that price inflation for advertisers will average 5 per cent.
However, senior media buyers in the agencies predict that advertisers could be paying 10 per cent more to air their TV commercials next year.
According to Billetts managing director Nigel Brophy, the technology, retail and car categories, as well as the traditional consumer goods companies, will continue to invest heavily in TV ads in 2008. The two major sporting events on the horizon are the Beijing Olympics and the European Championship soccer finals.
Licence to print money
Some €934 million has been spent on print advertising between January and October 2007, according to new data published this week by IAPI.
It's the largest expenditure in any advertising medium this year. The total advertising spend for the 10-month period was €1.5 billion at rate card value. That's an increase of 8 per cent on the same period last year.
Junk food ad ban
Major global food companies have this week signed a pledge to stop advertising junk food to children under-12 in an effort to self-regulate and to avoid a ban being imposed by the European Commission.
The pledge has been signed by 11 companies: Coca-Cola, Danone, Ferrero, General Mills, Kellogg, Kraft, Mars, Nestle, PepsiCo, Unilever and Burger King. It covers television, print and internet advertising across Europe.
The decision follows recent calls by the EU for the food industry to use commercial communications to support parents in making the right diet and lifestyle choices for their children.
