OVERALL media advertising expenditure (adex) rose 12.4 per cent to RM6.81 billion in the first six months of the year from RM6.06 billion in the same period a year ago.
According to Nielsen Media Research, advertisers spent RM4.11 billion on television advertising in the first six months of this year, up RM3.54 billion from previously.
Newspapers adex revenue increased to RM2.32 billion from RM2.08 billion in the same period last year.
In terms of market share, newspapers held 34.1 per cent of the adex in the local media industry, Nielsen said.
The New Straits Times Press (NSTP) group adex was RM785.66 million in the period under review, up 24.6 per cent from RM630.55 million previously.
The group captured 33.8 per cent of the market share, while Chinese publications held the second-largest market share at 27.6 per cent, followed by The Star with 24.5 per cent.
Leading the adex growth in the group was New Straits Times (NST), followed by Harian Metro and Berita Harian.
In the January-June period, NST posted year-on-year growth in revenue of 65 per cent to RM222 million, with a market share of 9.6 per cent.
The New Sunday Times recorded a 73.4 per cent jump in revenue to RM42.29 million.
The report showed that television captured 60.4 per cent of the total adex market share from January to last month, compared with 58.5 per cent in the same period last year.
Adex in free-to-air TV stood at RM1.55 billion compared with RM1.46 billion last year while pay TV commanded RM2.56 billion in adex, higher than the RM2.08 billion previously.
Radio’s adex revenue increased slightly to RM220.82 million from RM216.73 million previously.
Magazine adex grew steadily from a revenue of RM59.22 million in the same period last year to RM60.17 million this year.