SAN FRANCISCO—Despite ongoing worries about the strength of the economy, a new report on U.S. advertising in the first half of 2025 by Samba TV indicates that large TV advertisers were continuing to spend, with two thirds (68%) of the top 100 advertisers and three quarters (75%) of the top 20 advertisers increasing their TV impressions in the first half of the year.

"This shows brands are doubling down on advertising as a primary weapon to seize market share from competitors," the study noted.

Samba TV also reported explosive growth in CTV viewing, with CTV viewership up 46% in Q2 (April to June), a significant increase from the 32% growth seen in the same period last year.

In contrast, total linear TV viewing was only up by 1% in Q2, 2025.

In terms of advertising the report also found that many homes were being bombarded by ads. In H1 2025, the top 50% of linear TV households were bombarded with an average of 150 ads per day, accounting for a staggering 94% of all TV ad impressions.

“This extreme over-exposure creates a high risk of ad fatigue and creative burnout, diminishing the impact of campaign spending,” the researchers reported. “Conversely, the bottom 50% of households (a massive and largely untapped audience) saw just 9 ads per day. This highlights a major efficiency gap in traditional TV advertising, where a huge portion of the budget is spent oversaturating one group while missing the other almost entirely.”

The researchers also stressed that advertisers were “heavily over-serving older audiences while failing to reach key diverse demographics” while missing reach “among younger groups like Gen Z and millennials” and among Hispanic and Asian American Groups. “This data indicates that current media buying strategies are not keeping pace with the nation's changing demographics, presenting both a challenge and a major opportunity for brands to connect with underserved viewers,” the report noted.

Geographically, the report also found that there was a “clear pattern of over-delivery in the Northeast and parts of the Midwest and South, while Western states are significantly under-served.”

The report found that entertainment continued to be the top category, with 273 billion impressions, followed by pharmaceutical & medical
(193 billion), health & beauty
(152 billion), food & beverage
(127 billion), home & garden
(121 billion), business, finance, legal, and logistics
(116 billion), retail stores
(112 billion), restaurants
(100 billion), electronics & communication
(73 billion), vehicles manufacturers
(60 billion), insurance
(59 billion), travel
(35 billion) and other (242 billion)

Vehicle manufacturers saw the largest decline (down 25% from a year ago) while energy and power (up 25%) and education (up 15%) saw the biggest gains.

The full report can be found here.

The hefty TV ratings produced by the start of the 2024-25 NFL season are translating into high prices for 30-second spots during games, according to new data from Guideline. The average paid unit rate for a :30 in NFL programming is set to increase by 9% year-over-year in October 2024, following 7% growth in September, it reported.

“After an outstanding season where ad spend in NFL programming grew twice as fast as audience ratings, our data indicates that advertising expenditure in national TV for NFL remains robust, with expectations for continued growth as sports and live programming consolidate its status as the brightest spot in national television,” Alberto Leyes, head of product strategy at Guideline, said.

More specifically, Guideline found that the unit rate across all telecasts and live streams for Week 8 of this NFL season is expected to reach $543,000, up 11% from a year ago.

That growth is on the back of record pro-football ad revenue last year, Guideline said.

Guideline, an advertising intelligence firm, measures advertising spend and pricing data by capturing actual agency media investment from all major holding companies and most major independents.

The 2023-24 season set a new ad revenue record for the NFL, with revenue from live games hitting $5 billion for the first time.​ That was up 13.7% year-over-year from the 2022-23 campaign.

The new data also highlighted the NFL’s importance to broadcasters and networks. Fewer than 1 in 100 national TV spots fall in NFL content, according to Guideline, yet the league drives nearly $1 of every $3 spent on the medium during pro football season.​ In fact, the NFL commands 43% of all national TV sports dollars over a year, and that share grows to 65% during the season.​

The top three product categories advertising in NFL games season, according to Guideline, were Entertainment & Media, Financial Services and Technology. Categories that increased spending the most included Wellness (up 42% YoY) and Pharmacueticals (39%).

To learn more about NFL ad spend, visit guideline.ai.

NEW YORK—In a new report explaining its decision to downgrade debt ratings for several broadcast groups in 2024, S&P Global Ratings predicts modest declines in retransmission consent and core advertising revenue for TV stations in upcoming years. That ongoing trend is likely to make stations increasingly reliant on political advertising and could make it more costly for groups to refinance their debts, per the credit agency.

“We believe the industry will become increasingly reliant on political advertising revenue in even years,” Rose Oberman, Media & Entertainment director, S&P Global Ratings, wrote in the report. “At the same time, many local TV broadcasters face refinancing upcoming debt maturities at higher interest rates in 2026 and beyond. As a result, we expect EBITDA will gradually decline and cash flow will weaken.”

The report also noted that S&P Global Ratings so far this year had downgraded some debt from several broadcasters, including Cox Media Group, Gray Media, Sinclair and E.W. Scripps.

“Of the six local TV broadcasters we rate, two have stable outlooks (Nexstar and Tegna) reflecting stronger leverage and cash flow profiles, which we believe will support debt reduction and refinancing efforts,” Oberman noted. “The remaining four have negative outlooks (Sinclair, Gray, E.W. Scripps, and CMG). These companies currently have elevated leverage and could potentially face refinancing risk if they do not use their excess cash balance and expected free operating cash flow (FOCF) toward debt repayment.”

Oberman also argued that “the industry's concentration of debt maturities beginning in 2026 increases refinancing risk given the potential for waning lender demand leading to a shortfall in willing lenders to the sector.”

Oberman stressed, though, “we don't currently envision making additional material revisions to our estimated company enterprise values” unless retransmission fees and core ad revenues decline at a faster-than-projected rate.

SAN FRANCISCO—New research from Samba TV’ and HarrisX indicates that the majority of shoppers are planning to spend the same or more money on holiday shopping this year despite ongoing economic worries.  

Samba TV's 2023 Holiday Report, which surveyed more than 2,500 American adults and provides a detailed look at holiday spending plans, bodes well for advertisers and retailers in a period when the economy has remained strong despite ongoing worries about inflation and consumer confidence. 

More specifically, the 2023 Holiday Report found that three in four U.S. adults (75%) plan to spend the same or more holiday shopping this year than last year, while 83% of millennials plan to spend the same or more. The average adult plans to spend $978 this holiday season. 

The researchers report that millennials are far and away the biggest holiday spenders, exceeding any other age group by more than $600, the report said. Of millennials planning to spend more than last year, 40% say it’s because they’re in a better financial situation. Overall, millennials plan to spend an average of $1,474 this holiday season, while baby boomers plan to spend an average of $626.

"As we approach the holiday season following a difficult economic climate, our comprehensive consumer survey reveals key insights that reveal consumers are planning to spend more this upcoming holiday season," said Ashwin Navin, co-founder & CEO of Samba TV. “One of the standout findings from the report is the significant influence that millennials will have on this year’s total holiday spend. With social media and TV ads among the top three vehicles for holiday shoppers to get gift ideas, this presents an opportunity for marketers to leverage an effective omniscreen approach to connect with this influential demographic.”

The study also found that hybrid shopping (online and in-store) is the new normal, making both Black Friday and Cyber Monday crucial for brands as majority of shoppers wait until after Thanksgiving to begin holiday shopping. 

More than half (54%) of consumers plan to delay their holiday shopping until after Thanksgiving, creating increased importance for brands to maximize their Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. However, millennials are the exception to this trend, with less than half waiting until November to start shopping. About 70% of people plan to shop on Black Friday this year, the study found.

Half of U.S. adults plan to do an equal mix of in-store and online shopping this holiday season. Black Friday has younger generations hooked on brick-and-mortar, with 48% of Gen Z planning to in-store shop on retail’s most significant day of the year. About one third (34%) of people plan to shop in-store on Black Friday this year, while 58% plan to shop online on Cyber Monday.

"Most shoppers are planning to delay their holiday shopping until after Thanksgiving, making Black Friday and Cyber Monday crucial days for brands to capture attention and drive conversions this year,” continued Samba TV’s Navin. “And don’t forget about your deal shopper. With the bulk of this year’s dollars spent planned for purchases for oneself, consumers are using these holiday sales to get in on deals for themselves.”

The study also found that more than 80% of U.S. adults use streaming services, making it essential for advertisers to tap into this platform for holiday shopping dollars. One in two U.S. adults use social media while watching TV, highlighting the importance of deploying social and television ads for effective targeting. Additionally, social media is the #1 place people draw ideas for gifts. 

About one third (33%) of U.S. adults shop online while watching TV, indicating the need for advertisers to create attention-grabbing creatives that promote immediate purchases.

“Consumer spending is steady despite the economic turmoil, but their approach to buying goods and services this holiday season is increasingly more diverse and disaggregated,” said HarrisX CEO Dritan Nesho. “To reach today’s hyperconnected consumers, retailers need disciplined and persistent multi-channel strategies for both advertising and sales; these shoppers increasingly say their buying behavior is influenced as much by social media and streaming as it is by traditional advertising, and they usually partake in digital activities and purchasing concurrently and across multiple screens.”

This survey was conducted online within the United States from August 22-30, 2023, among 2,507 adults in the United States by HarrisX. The sampling margin of error of this poll is plus or minus 2.0 percentage points. The results reflect a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults. Results were weighted for age, gender, region, race/ethnicity, income, mobile carrier, streaming subscriptions, and party ID where necessary to align them with their actual proportions in the population.

NEW YORK—EDO has launched Creative Rotation Optimization, a new solution to increase TV ROI for brand and network advertisers. 

The Creative Rotation Optimization solution allows advertisers to optimally reallocate the ads they are using with no additional media spend or changes required to their media footprint. The new solution is designed to drive campaign performance gains up to 20%, EDO said. 

“Advertisers invest millions in TV, and they are reliant on expensive, traditional survey and sentiment research methods to assess creative effectiveness,” said Kevin Krim, president & CEO, EDO. “Most existing creative measurement solutions are costly, slow, and provide results too late or infrequently to make a meaningful impact on TV advertising campaigns. With increasing pressure to make TV advertising as responsive and efficient as digital, Creative Rotation Optimization is an innovation that’s long overdue to ensure actionable TV intelligence for in-flight campaign optimization.”

“Brands can now improve ad performance within their current media footprint with no added budget,” added Laura Grover, senior vice president, head of client solutions at EDO. “Creative Rotation Optimization enables advertisers to identify when ads are hitting their stride, or alternatively, when a campaign’s effectiveness is winding down, unlocking immediate value from creative investments. With marketing budgets under increasing economic pressure, these sorts of solutions are essential to helping marketing dollars go even further.”

EDO's creative rotation solution showcases brands' creative performance trends, such as ad creative effectiveness over its lifecycle, weekly wear-in and wear-out statistics, and value created from creative efficacy gains. 

With in-market evaluation, EDO said the solution provides clear recommendations on which ad creatives should be retired or receive more investment. The solution also details which ad creatives engage TV viewers across specific publisher platforms, enabling brands to optimize creative investments across distinct media environments.

The University of Phoenix was one of the first advertisers to leverage Creative Rotation Optimization. 

“We have found that a data-driven approach quickly improves our view of real-time engagement and ROI from TV advertising,” said Laura Schmidt, senior media director, University of Phoenix. “By best leveraging our in-market creative and media placements, we look forward to continued growth in the future.”

As networks work to finish their upfront deals, new data highlights the ongoing importance of online video for advertisers, with MediaRadar reporting that the category grew by 86% in 2022 to $28.2 billion and that digital advertising easily surpassed spending on TV. 

To understand the state of TV and video advertising entering the Upfront and NewFront season, MediaRadar analyzed a data sample of the ad spend from national broadcasts and cable TV ads in 2022 and found that digital advertising accounted for $68 billion or 47% of the total $144 billion ad spend on digital, print and TV. That easily outpaced TV, which comprised 41% the total spending in 2022.

Top categories investing in TV ads mirrored those in digital, with the top-5 largely consisting of finance, media & entertainment, retail, and tech sectors. However, except for media and entertainment, TV investment in these sectors witnessed a YoY decrease.

The study also found:  

• Online video advertising is up and increasingly more important to advertisers as it rose 86% YoY. MediaRadar observed 31.1k advertisers spend an estimated $28.2 billion in video advertising during 2022.  Top three categories advertised via online video during 2022: software ($1.9 billion), pharma ($1.4 billion), and film promotion ($1.4 billion). Combined spend nearly reached $4.8 billion, this is only 17% of total online video spend.
• OTT investments increased despite the challenges of matching 2021 growth. Around 5.7k brands increased their investment in streaming platforms YoY during 2022. Together their buys were nearly $1.3 billion. Most notably LinkedIn, eHarmony, Kohl’s, and Febreeze contributed to this YoY increase. 
• Short spots increase market share. TV ads 15 seconds or less accounted for $5.2 billion (35% of $14.8 billion) in Q1 2023. That’s a 6% YoY increase from Q1 2022. Ads 16 to 30 seconds decreased 10% YoY to $7b. In Q1 2023, 17% of TV ad spend was dedicated to ads longer than 46 seconds.
• Q1 2023 ad investment dedicated to TV ads less than 15-seconds up 6% while traditional 30-second ads are down YoY.
• Only 1% of advertisers entering the market bought national TV spots. Despite looming recession concerns, MediaRadar observed 52k new advertisers (nearly 80k brands) entered the market in the second half of 2022. Not all of these advertisers purchased TV spots (530), but over 36k invested in digital display, video advertising and other digital formats. 

NEW YORK—The big media buying company GroupM is predicting that all U.S. pay TV providers will reach fewer than one half of all U.S. homes by 2025. 

The projection is part of the company’s annual advertising forecast, which is also predicting that connected TV advertising will make up nearly one third of all U.S. TV advertising by 2027.

The GroupM forecast is predicting 6.5% global growth in advertising excluding U.S. political advertising for 2023, with global traditional TV advertising declining by 0.9% to $134.6 billion in 2023, while connected TV advertising showing a 18% pop to $23.2 billion and total TV/video advertising increasing by 1.5% to $157.8 billion around the world. 

The forecast noted that “the U.S. economy has proved fairly resilient” and has not tipped into recession.  “Currently, we expect connected TVs to grow double-digits over the next four years and make up nearly a third of all TV advertising revenue by 2027,” the report noted.  

In explaining its prediction that pay TV penetration will fall below 50% in 2025, GroupM noted that “In the U.S. in the closing months of 2022, streaming providers have claimed virtually all the most watched TV programs other than live sports, which is still dominated by linear networks and cable channels. But as Apple, Amazon and other non-traditional players enter the market for sports rights even this last passion of linear viewership won’t be guaranteed. Sports alone certainly haven’t been enough to stem the losses of video customers from cable and satellite providers.”

NEW YORK—Free ad-supported TV streaming channels (FAST) are beginning to have a major impact on the TV ad landscape, according to a new report from Comcast Advertising that found FAST channel penetration among households has more than doubled year-over-year.

The report also concluded that six out of 10 households who have connected TVs are using F.A.S.T. services exclusively or in addition to other services to get a TV-like viewing experience without the costs or logins required for linear TV or paid streaming.

“F.A.S.T. is a rapidly growing ad-supported medium for consumers to watch and discover premium streaming content in an environment that mimics linear TV,” said James Rooke, president, Comcast Advertising.

As advertisers look to efficiently maximize their reach in an increasingly fragmented viewing landscape, F.A.S.T services are a valuable complement to traditional TV and other AVOD streaming options as part of a holistic multi-screen media plan, the researchers argued. 

The report also looked at recent viewing trends from FAST provider XUMO, which is owned by Comcast and found that the average XUMO user spends about 104 minutes within the platform once they have entered. 

The researchers also noted that many consumers may be landing on FAST channels without even realizing it, as many are programmed directly into the channel guide by TV manufacturers. Not surprisingly, 70 percent of XUMO users are cord cutters, relying on XUMO as a complement to subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services.

The full report, “Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV: Why More Advertisers (and Consumers) Are Going F.A.S.T.”, is available here. 

Before the pandemic, some predicted a decline in local television viewing, pointing to the rise in popularity of streaming services and other web-based entertainment options. But for two years, American viewers have endured the ups and downs of COVID-19 planted firmly in front of their television sets. They're tuning in to local newscasts and programming to stay informed and maintain a sense of community connection.

The increase in viewership enjoyed by direct-to-consumer portals like Hulu, Netflix, and AppleTV is a reality. But there's every indication that local broadcast TV will remain strong in 2022. Many people are still working from home at least part of the time and will continue to do so for the long term as hybrid work models become the norm. They rely on their local news for information on current events, such as the changing pandemic situation and, crucial in 2022 local, state, and federal elections. 

The 2020 presidential election was an advertising juggernaut, with $9.5 billion in political ad spend across local broadcast and cable TV and digital video. Even without a presidential race, this year’s hotly contested midterm elections are expected to bring in $8,8 billion, a 125% increase over the 2018 elections. And more than half of those political advertising dollars will go to local TV stations.

Marketplace TV gaining traction
Over-the-top (OTT) and Connected TV (CTV) now account for 24% of TV consumption, up from 19% in 2019. Ad spend for CTV is expected to exceed $19 billion this year, an increase of 32% over 2021. And over half of those dollars will be transacted programmatically.

The advanced targeting capabilities available with OTT and CTV mean broadcasters can offer advertisers the extensive reach of their broadcast inventory alongside the targeting of digital. Programmatic marketplaces make ad-supported streaming inventory easy to access and affordable to buy, making it a desirable option for advertisers.

But marketplace transactions aren’t just for digital TV. The rapid evolution in programmatic advertising makes it easier for advertisers to include broadcast TV in their advertising mix, allowing TV stations to attract more advertising dollars. This year, the ease of execution, waste reduction, brand safety, and rate transparency of marketplace transactions will attract a growing number of advertisers, especially as broadcasters continue to improve their marketplace experience. 

As a result, the marketplace for programmatic purchasing of broadcast ads will grow significantly in 2022, bringing the industry closer to true convergence, where over-the-air, broadcast inventory and digital advertising can be purchased together through a seamless user experience.

Consolidation is coming
The past year saw the launch of several new direct-to-consumer streaming services, all hoping for a share of $25+ billion in annual revenue. Portals even exist for streaming local news broadcasts, giving consumers more choice than ever for how and where they access their news. 

A highly saturated market is causing increased audience fragmentation, especially as consumers struggle to balance subscription-fee overload with creating the right combination of services to access the programming they want, making free, ad-supported options increasingly attractive. 

As a result, a move toward more ad-supported streaming and consolidation among even some of the most prominent players in the space are all but inevitable. 

Addressable TV is growing
Addressable TV advertising is expected to generate about $7.5 billion globally in 2022. However, while that number is impressive, it’s still only a small percentage of the total TV advertising forecast of $153 billion. This year's focus will be on building the technical infrastructure that TV broadcasters need to sell, manage, execute, and measure addressable ads alongside more traditional digital advertising and over-the-air broadcast spots. 

The ability to offer advertisers cross-platform, addressable advertising is critical to creating the holistic reach extension necessary for traditional TV broadcasters to remain competitive in an increasingly fragmented market, especially with continued growth expected across CTV, FAST, AVOD, and NextGen TV.

RESTON, Va.—Comscore and WideOrbit have announced that they’ve expanded their longstanding partnership to automate linear TV buying and selling and that WideOrbit is introducing Comscore TV information to power automated TV transactions and audience targeting across markets and demographics.   

The partnership facilitates the automated buying and selling of advertising inventory from more than 1700 local TV stations across 210 Local Markets, allowing advertisers to reach a specific number of impressions in a market and/or daypart rather than make specific program buys, the companies said. 

Through the agreement, more than 65 agencies, brands, and DSPs will have access to inventory offered through WideOrbit’s sell-side platform, WO Marketplace, powered by Comscore TV information from over 50 million homes. More than 96% of US television households are available to reach via this platform.

“The growing demand for automated buying and selling of linear TV highlights the critical importance of offering advertisers timely, relevant data to target audiences across markets and demographics,” said Eric Mathewson, WideOrbit founder and CEO. “Our partnership with Comscore allows us to provide the data advertisers need for effective targeting, combined with the ease of execution, waste reduction, brand safety, and rate transparency they’ve come to expect from WideOrbit marketplace transactions.” 

WO Marketplace helps local TV stations open new revenue streams with automated access to new demand. By bringing sellers new demand that can be evaluated alongside current sold inventory, broadcasters can accept only the offers that best meet their needs.

"The industry has been asking for better automation of TV buying and selling to harness the power of broadcast TV, which remains one of the most effective ways to reach large numbers of consumers,” said Bill Livek, CEO and executive vice chair, Comscore. “We are proud to deepen our longstanding partnership with WideOrbit to help advertisers more efficiently reach audiences across specific markets and demographics.”

WideOrbit is the system of record for more than $37 billion in advertising spend annually and is used by such companies as NBCUniversal, Fox, ViacomCBS, AMC Networks, Univision, Gray, and Sinclair.

LONDON & LOS ANGELES—ThinkAnalytics has rolled out enhancements to its ThinkAdvertising that are designed to bring even more sophisticated, digital-style ad targeting to the TV sector, and provide opportunities for video service providers to build additional revenue streams.

Chief among the enhancements is the ability to blend comprehensive, dynamic, first-party behavioral data with a broadened set of enriched metadata to offer hyper-targeted segmentation, the company said. 

Also new is support for the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) taxonomy used by media buyers for digital ad campaigns, which makes it easier for advertisers to buy and run cross-media campaigns that include TV ads. ThinkAdvertising automates the creation of valuable audience segments using more than 160 IAB audience affinities – for example, people interested in luxury cars or adventure vacations.

With its focus on first-party data, ThinkAdvertising now makes it possible to predict a viewer’s purchase intent, the company also noted. By tracking viewing behavior, the solution can dynamically capture and build audience segments that demonstrate an enhanced interest in a particular purchasing category at a particular time. For example, a sudden interest in searching for and watching programs about trekking vacations signals that the viewer will likely be interested in being served ads from companies that offer trekking tours.

“Our breakthrough features for consumer profiling and predictive behavioral analysis make hyper-targeted advertising a reality for TV,” said Peter Docherty, CTO of ThinkAnalytics. “Based on our latest proof of concepts with customers, viewer engagement is up thanks to improved ad relevancy, as are those all-important ad premiums. Through our powerful combination of AI, information science and data science, we are uniquely positioned to deliver advanced ad profiling along with a rapid, cost-effective implementation in the cloud that will help to drive a new era of data-driven, digital TV advertising.”

ThinkAdvertising is available as part of the Think360 suite or as a standalone solution. It can be easily integrated with other analytics platforms and ad decision services to deploy highly targeted advertising campaigns.

ThinkAnalytics delivers content discovery and viewer insights to over 80 service providers serving approximately 400 million subscribers in 43 languages with 6 billion recommendations per day.

Customers include: Astro, Deutsche Telekom, DirecTV Latin America, HBO Latin America, Liberty Global, OSN, Proximus, Rogers, Singtel, Sky, Tata Sky, and Vodafone.

MIAMI—AdAmp has officially launched, providing TV advertising access to small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) and agencies.

AdAmp is designed as a one-stop advertising platform designed for SMBs and agencies so they can place ads on leading U.S. TV platforms. AdAmp says that its users can have their business featured on cable and streaming networks, amplifying its reach.

Offerings from AdAmp include audience campaign planning; creative services; a portfolio of brand-safe inventory from TV streaming, cable and broadcast providers; and built-in reporting with full delivery transparency, attribution and ROI. 

Advertisers using the AdAmp service can set flexible budgets; use local zip-code targeting to connect with local audiences; use simple campaign management; and have real-time measurement and reporting.

“AdAmp’s ability to consolidate and simplify TV media buying at scale for SMBs will be an important arsenal in SMBs marketing tool chest,” said Stephen Saper, founder and CEO of AdAmp.

For more information, visit www.adamp.tv.  

NEW YORK—After being ravaged in the early part of 2020 due to the pandemic, the U.S. ad market saw a rise in the fourth quarter, which indicates things may be turning the corner in terms of market recovery. However, it is digital, not TV, that is the primary driving force.

The end-of-year and Q4 report form Standard Media Index shows that the last three months of 2020 saw the first growth in U.S. ad revenue for the year, a 6% increase. Because of the hits in Q2 (-30%) and Q3 (-3%), the overall market decline was at 7%, but SMI appears encouraged by the trend that the U.S. is on.

The U.S. has had five consecutive months of growth, thanks in large part to the growth of digital advertising. Looking at the full year, the U.S. saw a six point increase from digital allocation in 2019 (42%) to 202 (48%). In Q4 specifically, 53% of ad spending was digital, surpassing all other forms of media for the first time.

As a result of this, TV ad spending has been on the decline. Per SMI, since starting 2020 making up about 50% of the ad spending, TV ad spending has steadily declined, finishing at 42% in Q4. However, it fared better than other forms of media (radio, newspapers, outdoor). Overall, TV ad spend dropped 3% for the entirety of 2020.

SMI also found that demand for video advertising is also shifting, at least in part, from broadcast TV to OTT/streaming.

Compared to other Anglo markets (Canada, U.K., Australia, New Zealand), the U.S. was the only one to see a decline of less than 10%.

For more information, visit Standard Media Index’s website. 

NEW YORK—TV advertising experienced one heck of a comeback in the third quarter of 2020 after a record downturn in the second quarter, according to a new report from MoffettNathanson, blowing past the research company’s own projections and looking to continue into the fourth quarter of the year.

In Q2 2020, during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, MoffettNathanson reported a decline of 28% in aggregate TV advertising. This most recent report shows that Q3 saw an aggregate TV advertising increase of 3%, about +1,900 bps better than what MoffettNathanson originally predicted back in March. Based on these findings, MoffettNathanson now expects that growth to continue into Q4 at about a +2% clip, which would be about +600 bps better than it initially estimated.

When looking for why such a turnaround has occurred, MoffettNathanson said that it found three primary factors.

First, the third quarter brought an unprecedented return of every major sport, including the NBA and NHL playoffs, the start of the MLB season and major PGA tournaments. These events, which in a typical year would primarily take place in Q2, were shifted to Q3 because of the pandemic. The return of sports brought high CPM (cost per thousand impressions) inventory to the advertising market.

The second factor was a surge in local, regional and national ad spending in the run up to the 2020 general election. MoffettNathanson estimates that political ad spending for TV was up 75% from 2016, especially in key swing states. The news cycle also helped boost ratings for news networks like CNN, MSNBC and Fox, which in turn drove monetization, the company said.

The final factor was the return of brands that had pulled advertising during Q2.

PLUS: Broadcast TV's Dominance in Political Ads Will Persist, Gray TV's LaPlatney Contends

With sports back on their normal schedule and reports of vaccines that could be ready sometime in 2021, MoffettNathanson believes the TV ad market will continue to be strong over the next three quarters, particularly with the postponed Summer Olympics on the way.

“Relative to our estimates at the beginning of the pandemic in 1Q 2020, the recovery in digital and TV ad growth has been much stronger than expected,” the report reads. “... We had expected TV to benefit from political spending at the end of the year, but had not anticipated such a rapid return to positive growth by 3Q.”

An additional finding from MoffettNathanson’s report noted that outside of digital, TV was the only media type that did not post a loss in advertising year-over-year. 

NEW YORK—The return of sports in the late summer wasn’t just good news for game-hungry sports fans, but for TV advertising as well, as Standard Media Index reports that Q3 ad revenue, while still below 2019, saw a dramatic improvement from its Q2 2020 numbers.

TV’s Q2, which consisted of the early days of the pandemic, saw a 31% decline in ad revenue, as sports and other live events were cancelled or postponed. In Q3, as restrictions eased and sports—particularly the NBA and NHL playoffs—returned, TV ad revenue had a significant upswing, growing 23 points, though still a decline of 8% compared to 2019.

Advertising over digital media has been the biggest boon, however, to getting the advertising market as close to normal as possible. In Q3, digital advertising saw a positive growth of 8%, representing a 26% growth from its Q2; it was the first advertising medium to top positive growth in the U.S. since March 2020. Digital accounted for 49% of the media mix between July and September, and growth was strong specifically with search and video.

Overall, the U.S. ad market is down 5% compared to 2019.

As far as who is spending on advertising, pharmaceutical drugs was the strongest performing category in the U.S., per SMI, increasing 19% year-over-year. Cars, on the other hand, have seen a 19% decrease year-over-year in their ad spending. 

NEW YORK—Advertising is stronger when TV and digital work together, according to a new study from Comcast Cable’s advertising sales division Effectv and MediaScience.

The “Digital Loves TV” study compared brand metrics and advertising perceptions for digital-only campaigns versus campaigns that included both digital and TV components. When TV and digital ads are coupled together they prove to be more effective.

Specifically, the study found that viewers spent three times more with ads on TV and digital compared to digital alone. Brand recall was also better, more than doubling when a digital ad for a brand also had a TV ad. In addition, customers were 15% more likely to purchase the product when ads aired on TV and digital compared to just digital.

There was also an impact on how TV can provide a better perception of a brand’s digital ads. In the study, when a digital ad was preceded by a TV ad, the researchers observed a 12% lift in brand attitude, as well as being perceived as “less intrusive” and “less annoying.” TV created what the report described as a halo effect.

TV helps consumers connect to all brands, but there is a greater lift in key metrics for unknown brands, the report finds. Participants stated that seeing a TV ad “legitimized” an unknown brand, where a lone digital ad could leave them skeptical.

Overall, the report found that 94% of viewers watched the TV ads compared to 78% in the digital environment.

“This study demonstrates TV advertising’s impact on consumer awareness and attitude toward both established and lesser-known brands,” said John Bauer, executive director of data, Insights and Innovation, at Effectv. “TV is a trusted source of information, and pairing TV with digital video more effectively builds brand strength than digital alone.”

The full “Digital Loves TV” report is available online. 

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.—CBS Television Stations is making the Alphonso Local platform the standard for its 17 owned stations throughout the U.S. to provide TV attribution for local advertisers.

Alphonso Local, from the Alphonso TV data company, is a suite of TV ad analytics and attribution services that provide info on the effectiveness of TV campaigns in driving business results like website visits and conversions, foot traffic to physical locations, online and offline transactions and more.

The CBS TV Stations sales teams can now show clients how various programs, shows, dayparts and creatives are performing in achieving the goals of local TV campaigns. Data includes showing how many people viewed an ad in a specific time frame and then subsequently visited the advertiser’s store, or website or mobile app.

Alphonso Local is powered by video AI deployed in a range of smart TVs and connected TV devices, enabling it to provide real-time and OTT viewership data, according to the company. They also report having 15 million opted-in U.S. households providing viewership data.

“Today’s marketing success demands more precise measurement and Alphonso addresses that for our station’s and clients,” said Julio Marenghi, president of sales at CBS Television Stations. “It enables powerful one-to-one targeting of TV audiences across all screens giving brands insights that rating points do not necessarily address in traditional media plans.”

CBS is using Alphonso Local at its TV owned stations in Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Sacramento, San Francisco, Seattle and Tampa.

For more information, visit www.alphonso.tv.  

NEW YORK—The recovery of the TV advertising marketplace is taking small steps, as the month of May saw a seven-point improvement over April, though numbers are still well below what they were in 2019.

This comes from the latest report from Standard Media Index. The overall national TV advertising market in April was -28% from 2019 numbers; May came in at -21%. Upfront saw the biggest change of nine points (-28% in April to -19% in May), while scatter saw an improvement of five points from -32% to -27%.

In upfront spending, cable had the greatest improvement from April, improving a total of 13 points (-29% to -16%). Broadcast saw a three point increase month-to-month (-30% to -27%).

It was the opposite for scatter spending, with broadcast improving 20 points (-39% to -19%), while cable actually saw a decline from April to May of one point (-32% to -33%).

SMI points to the continued loss of sports programming as a chief reason for broadcast’s greater decline in upfront and scatter spending when compared to cable. SMI estimates that there was more than a $1.6 billion shortfall in sports ad revenue from March-May, two-thirds due to upfront and a third because of scatter.

News programming, meanwhile, has raised 5.8% overall in ad revenue during the pandemic. Entertainment programming, however, has declined by 14%.

Most advertising categories experienced the improvement in May, with six major categories spending almost $300 million more on national TV in May than in April.

Looking at the complete picture, from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March through May, the national TV advertising market was down $2.7 billion from the same period in 2019; it was down $2.9 billion from SMI’s forecast for March-May 2020. Spending was down 23% from 2019 and 24% from SMI’s projection.

There has been a shift toward advertising on digital platforms, but SMI says that it has not been enough to offset the decline of linear TV spending.

The full SMI report is available online. 

LONDON—Brexit is already having an impact on TV advertising in the U.K., according to a new report from Enders Analysis.

The company predicted British TV advertising spend would fall 5% year-on-year during 2019 due to the prospect of Brexit on Oct. 31, with companies cutting back on marketing budgets and shifting their money into other forms of media.

Enders said the revision of its forecast is for the second half of 2019 and mostly for Q4; it has been brought about by the prospect of the “U.K.’s cliff-edge Brexit on Oct. 31, without an agreement and transition period of continued free trade to the next trading regime with the EU,” said the report.

It also said TV market sources have reported “exceptional volatility and nervousness about Q4, and the difficulties of estimating Q4 spends.”

The report continues that a no-deal Brexit will impede the supply of goods to retailers, and notes that the U.K. consumer spends the most on retail in Europe, mostly imported from the EU (fresh food, clothing). This factor alone will damage TV advertising, said Enders, which may also be in structural decline due to the switch to direct response media.

Enders also noted that TV set viewing has continued to fall in the first seven months of 2019, with linear commercial TV viewing declining 4.3% year-on-year, continuing to be impacted by the rise of BVoD, SVoD and YouTube—though still averaging just under 2 hours 20 minutes per day.

NEW YORK—The percentage of advertisers who plan on using data-enabled advertising for their TV ad buys has been growing at a 42% compound annual growth rate for the past three years. By 2020, approximately 40% will use data (to improve planning, targeting and/or analyze attribution) to determine where they place their TV ads according to a new report from Blockgraph, an industry datasharing blockchain-based initiative led by Comcast subsidiary FreeWheel .

This is double the 20% increase in 2018, but for broadcasters to take advantage of this trend they need to adopt new strategies that take a more holistic view of consumer preferences, according to Blockgraph.

Challenges include :

● Inadequate consumer profiles that prevent advertisers from developing a “360-degree view” of their audiences (only 20% of advertisers said they could do this);

● A complex ecosystem of data ownership and sharing that creates an environment that can discourage advertisers from sharing data for fear of leaks to competition;

● Consumer privacy concerns (79% of advertisers are concerned about protecting consumer data, up 10 % from 2018), and

● The use of third-party providers to perform data matching outside the media supply chain prompts inefficiencies and longer turnaround times.  

Jason Manningham, general manager of Blockgraph, said the results of their survey illustrate the unique and complex nature of the TV advertising business when compared to digital.

“The findings confirmed that advertisers are eager to bring additional data to TV, similar to their use of data in digital media. Yet, there is also the recognition that TV is different,” he said. “So, while they are bringing more data to TV, the growth, albeit strong, is actually tempered a bit by today’s challenges.”

Blockgraph’s white paper is available here.

NEW YORK—OTT and other content distribution services are continuing to emerge, but when it comes to the top option for advertising, TV remains king. That was one of the main findings from “A Year in Television: MediaRadar’s Overview of TV Advertising in 2018 and 2019.”

The report covers from the second quarter of 2018 to the end of the first quarter in 2019. While it touches on what categories are the top advertisers and what new ones are emerging, the big takeaways touch on how recent mergers and acquisitions will impact the ad landscape, the shortening of TV ads and how big, live TV events remain big draws for advertisers.

Over the last year, AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner, Disney’s purchase of Fox and others caused 13% of the entire TV market to switch hands, per MediaRadar. As a result, Disney is poised to emerge as the top company in terms of total nation TV ad dollars captured; with NBCUniversal, the two companies could capture $4 out of every $10 spent on national TV advertising going forward. The potential merger of Viacom and CBS could cause further ripple effects.

MediaRadar also found that the average length of TV ads have taken a dip, dropping 8% year-over-year. The number of TV ads that run 15 seconds has increased by 18% and now make up just over 55% of all television ads. Six second ads also saw a big increase of 36% year-over-year, but still makes up less than 1% of all TV ads.

The key finding as to why traditional TV advertising is still on top, according to MediaRadar, is the pull of advertising during huge live events, none more so than the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl more than doubled the next closest event in ad revenue (the 2019 AFC Championship Game) and saw a 58% renewal rate.

“With yearly events like the Super Bowl bringing in such high quantities of ad revenue, it is hard to imagine the television format going anywhere anytime soon,” read MediaRadar’s report. “Despite some usual and expected shifts, 2018 and 2019 have shown us the continued force for the TV ad landscape, and we expect much of the same for the rest of 2019 and into 2020.”

The full report is available here. 

WASHINGTON—The Department of Justice is scheduled to host the Competition in Television and Digital Advertising Workshop, a two-day public workshop starting Thursday, May 2, that will examine industry dynamics in media advertising and the implications for antitrust enforcement and policy, specifically related to online and television advertising.

The main crux of the agenda looks to explore the practical considerations that industry participants face and the competitive impact of technological developments such as digital and targeted advertising in media markets. Four panels will examine topics that include television advertising; internet and mobile advertising; the competitive dynamics in media advertising; and trends and predictions for advertising generally.

Featured speakers will include opening remarks from Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust Makan Delrahim and panelists that include Pat LaPlatney, president and co-CEO of Gray Television; Mark Lieberman, president and CEO of Viamedia; Greg Stuart, CEO of Mobile Marketing Association; Rick Kaplan, general counsel for NAB; and Chris Ripley, CEO Sinclair Broadcast Group.

The workshop, which runs May 2, 1:30-5:30 p.m., to May 3, 9:30 a.m.-1 p.m., is free and open to the public. It will be held in the Anne K. Bingaman Auditorium and Lecture Hall in the Liberty Square Building in D.C.

Though free, attendees are encouraged to register for each day by emailing ATR.AdvRegInfo@USDOJ.GOV.

TV will represent 80 per cent of global video ad spend in the next five years, according to a new report from analysts Strategy Analytics.

In their Global Advertising Forecast - 2-20-2023 report, the company says this year, global TV ad spend will be over $195 billion and grow to $210 billion by 2023.

Digital video will represent only 20 per cent of global video ad spend in 2023, despite being the fastest growing digital advertising category (+10.8 per cent CAGR over 2018-2023), reaching nearly $51 billion in 2023.

The report says the U.K., which has been a leader in adoption of digital advertising and was the first country to see total digital advertising eclipse that of TV advertising, leads global territories in terms of digital’s share of total video, accounting for 44 per cent in 2023, followed by the U.S. (30 per cent) and China (27 per cent). On a per capita basis, marketers will spend $67.27 per person on digital video advertising in the U.K. versus $65.76 in the US.

Michael Goodman, director, television and media strategies, at Strategy Analytics said, “With consumers increasingly watching video across platforms, including mobile devices and connected TV screens, audience measurement agencies are evolving their tools, however, cross-device measurement solutions are still geared towards reach-based metrics, and in a fragmented online world, no media can provide reach better than television.”

NEEDHAM, MA— Extreme Reach is an advertising distribution and delivery company, offering a start-to-finish workflow for TV and video ads along with talent and rights management. We launched nine years ago with a focus on simplifying the delivery of ads for linear TV and now have 19 offices worldwide.

With an eye on the coming convergence of TV and video advertising, we evolved our platform to manage video ads across every screen and device with Talent & Rights compliance fully integrated—one platform and one process now gives brands and their agencies easy access to and control of advertising assets. Previously, brand advertisers and agencies had to work across many delivery formats and mechanisms, and they also had to manage the complex talent and rights that go along with those ads wherever they played. Extreme Reach brought these processes together—TV, digital video and Talent & Rights, and built a platform, unique in the industry, that supports all three.

To serve our global customers, we originally built data centers with servers in many locations and utilized cloud storage. Content creators would send advertisement files to us for ingest, then we would transcode the files to the required output formats for distribution. We use a large number of Harmonic Promedia Carbon servers for transcoding, and we worked with Telos Alliance TV Solutions Group’s team at Minnetonka Audio to create a custom variant of their AudioTools plug-in for Carbon to manage loudness. Carbon is a video-centric platform and its native loudness processing was limited in capabilities. Because Minnetonka Audio specializes in audio processing, we found that their plug-in was the most accurate solution available for loudness management and adjustments specifically designed for Carbon. So, by combining these two specialties, we compiled a best-in-breed solution for audio and video in a single package.

With our success came continued growth, and the need to build an improved, scalable solution for the future. We saw the cost of cloud services dropping, and the benefits piling up, and decided to shift our media file processing and QC completely to the cloud. We expected this move would take advantage of increased flexibility and also shift capital costs to operational costs, eliminating our ownership of the servers and their required maintenance. For the move to work, we knew we needed cloud versions of both the Carbon transcoding software and the Minnetonka AudioTools loudness control plug-in.

Telos Alliance TV Solutions Group’s engineering and sales teams worked with us to implement and upgrade our cloud-based workflow using an enhanced version of Minnetonka Audio’s loudness plug-in for Harmonic Promedia Carbon, ensuring that we could scale up as required without paying for more space than we needed. The Minnetonka AudioTools plug-in for Carbon supports audio management for television advertising as well as for all other video advertising media, including on-demand, streaming, and OTT.

With this new solution, we have already gained improved processing time, since our transcode and QC servers have direct access to our media files. This translates into faster turnaround of spots between their upload to our platform and their delivery to the thousands of destinations we serve.

We are particularly impressed that the Minnetonka AudioTools plug-in allows us to correctly normalize the loudness of spots by focusing on just the actual “spot” part of a file which will be broadcast, while eliminating from the loudness measurement any audio which may be present in the “slate” portion of the file but is never intended for air. While our spec calls for the slate to be silent, we still receive files which have audio present. Any less intelligent loudness tool, which cannot differentiate between slate and spot components of a file, will produce incorrect results.

Since implementing the new cloud plug-in solution on the transcode servers which create our mezzanine files, the number of loudness-related issues our QC and Support team typically deals with has dropped to almost zero, significantly reducing the costs and time associated with this support. Now, every spot is processed with consistently accurate loudness. We couldn’t be happier.

David Unsworth is vice president of Technical Operations for Extreme Reach. He can be reached atDavid.Unsworth@extremereach.com.

For more information, please visit Telos Alliance’s Television Solutions Group atwww.telosalliance.com/TVSGor call 216-241-7225.

[Want more information like this? Subscribe to our newsletter and get it delivered right to your inbox.]

NEW YORK—The IAB Tech Lab, a non-profit consortium of advertisers, content creators and consumer electronics manufacturer, has released a set of guidelines designed to improve consumers’ video ad experiences across smart TVs, connected devices and other OTT systems.

The “Guidelines for Identifier for Advertising on OTT Platforms,” promotes a set of industry best practices for delivering targeted ads in order to maintain a high-quality advertising experience, as well as control ad frequency and rotation across OTT systems. The Lab is inviting public comment through May 3, 2018.

[Read: IAB Releases New IAB Standard Ad Unit Portfolio]

To better manage ad-related activities, The IAB Tech Lab recommends that stakeholders use a unique identifier for advertising (IFA) that is completely disconnected from a hardware ID, MAC address, IMEI, or IP address. Devices and apps must store and send this IFA as part of any ad request, along with an associated IFA type identifying the IFA’s source, and Limit Ad Tracking (LAT), which provides an opt-out mechanism to respect the users’ privacy choices.

“After linear TV, more Americans watch video content on OTT than on VOD or DVR, and the medium is skyrocketing,” said Dennis Buchheim, Senior Vice President and General Manager, IAB Tech Lab. “The traditional, semi-persistent cookie we are accustomed to using as an identifier on browsers isn’t at play across OTT systems, so we need to deploy other types of identifiers to ensure that ad experiences are optimal for consumers..”

The IAB Tech Lab is an independent, non-profit research and development consortium comprised of interactive marketing entities, including: digital publishers, ad technology firms, interactive marketers, agencies, consumer electronics manufacturers, OTT app publishers, and ad measurement platforms. The IAB Tech Lab describes its mission as advancing protocols, technical standards, software and services that help drive the growth of interactive advertising across OTT platforms.

After public comment concludes, the IAB Tech Lab’s OTT Technical Working Group will evaluate and incorporate the feedback received and release a final version. To review the proposed guidelines, please visit their website.  

LAS VEGAS—At a CES panel on Tuesday, panelists discussed that even though the media landscape is continuing to evolve, TV remains a major factor, particularly when it comes to advertising. “TV is alive and well. It’s just being refined, refined by the viewers,” said Peter Naylor, senior vice president, ad sales at Hulu.

The full article is available on TVT’s sister publication B&C.