Ashes bolsters Nine share of ad market The commercial free-to-air television advertising market has enjoyed its best six-month period in three years, with a particularly strong December due to the Ashes cricket series between Australia and England. Standard Media Index, which measures ad spend by media buyers, showed the metropolitan free-to-air ad market grew by 4.8 per cent for the six months to December, compared with the previous corresponding period. This was the best result since July to December 2010. Both of these periods were boosted by political advertising ahead of a federal election. The free-to-air market grew 12.1 per cent in December, compared with the same month the previous year, although this was inflated by a $6.1 million booking to Nine Entertainment, which related to advertising sponsorship from March to September in 2013. Excluding this booking, the market was up by 7.9 per cent. Nine took a mammoth 45.9 per cent share of metropolitan free-to-air advertising for December, its best result on record. Seven West Media earned a 33.1 per cent share, while Ten Network had 21 per cent. It is important to note that December is a slow month for advertising, evidenced by the size of the metropolitan free-to-air market falling to $162 million for the month from $262 million in November 2013. Seven had a 40.5 per cent share of the free-to-air ad market for 2013, Nine 37.8 per cent and Ten 21.7 per cent. Double-digit declines in print media continued. Metropolitan newspapers fell by 16 per cent in December compared with the same month the previous year, while magazines plunged by 19.7 per cent. Online display advertising surged by 25 per cent over the same period, highlighting the migration of advertising dollars from print to digital media.