Television income from advertising fell by 23% to €307m in the first six months of this year, even though viewers were spending 12 more minutes a day watching tv.

The figures, from research bureau Screen Force, show that companies pulled back on television campaigns in order to cut costs and because of the general uncertainty caused by the coronavirus crisis.

News and current affairs programming was particularly well-watched in the first half of the year. On average, people spent 37 minutes a day watching news, a rise of 40%. Sport-based advertising, however, was down 60%, as events were scrapped or postponed.

‘Demand virtually stopped,’ Marc Oosterhout, director of advertising agency N=5 told broadcaster NOS. ‘Advertising airtime is a question of supply and demand – how much companies want to advertise and how much space is available. The time spent by consumers using the medium has little influence.’

Radio advertising turnover also fell between 20% and 30%, but listener figures were up 10%. ‘That is the reverse of the trend of the past few years,’ Liedeweij Hentenaar, director of the Radio Advies Bureau, told NOS.