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.
