BELLEVUE, Wash.—Despite ongoing worries about the economy, new data from iSpot shows that national linear advertising revenue recorded a 4.2% increase in Q3 2025 versus a year earlier to $8.77 billion.
The data, which is based on an analysis of 1.7 trillion verified household TV ad impressions, also showed that total TV ad impressions dipped by 2.7% to 1.67 trillion YoY and that linear TV networks opted to include more total ad minutes, which rose by 2.4% year-over-year to 5.3 million. This follows an annual trend of increased ad time in Q3 and Q4 as more sports inventory becomes available.
The study also found that the NFL and college football both saw double-digit growth in Q3 TV ad impressions YoY, as the sport continues to take over weekend (and some weekday) viewing.
The findings also highlighted the importance of news. Nine of the top 20 programs by TV ad reach in Q3 were news-related (including morning shows).
Another notable finding is the fact that Spanish language programming continues to grow its reach YoY, from 4.4% of TV ad impressions in Q3 2024 to 4.7% in Q3 2025 (including a 10% jump from Univision alone).
The study also provided a detailed breakdown of networks by share of ad reach (HH):
