The September gain followed declines in May, June, July and August. For the third quarter, spending was down 14% compared to the 2021 quarter.

In the third quarter, spending on broadcast TV was down 24%, spending on cable was off 8% and syndication was up 15%.

Spending on sports programming was down 43% in the quarter. A year ago, the Olympics and the NBA Finals were in the third quarter. Spending on entertainment programming was up 1% and spending on news programming was down 1%.

Advertising bought through upfront deals was down 10% in the quarter, while scatter spending was off 24% and direct response was down 17%.

In September, spending by consumer packaged goods marketers — the largest single category at nearly $500 million — was down 6%. Spending by pharmaceutical makers was up 19% and entertainment and media company spending was up 2%. ■

The drop was somewhat smaller than expected considering that a year ago, the NBA Finals and Summer Olympics were televised during Q3. Ad impressions were also down about 5.4% in the quarter to 596 billion, according to iSpot.

In the quarter, ABC delivered the most ad impressions — a 12.02% share of the total. ABC supplanted NBC, which was number one a year ago.

The other networks delivering the most impressions were CBS, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, CNN, ESPN, Univision, Fox and Telemundo.

With Fox News, MSNBC and CNN all in the top 10, cable news was a force in the quarter, accounting for 22.5% of total national impressions. While falling short of the record levels seen in the 2020 presidential election year, impressions were up from from 20.3% a year ago and ahead of 2019 and 2018. 

National Football League games also accounted for a big chunk of impressions, with a 4.22% share. College football was the second most-seen program with 2.79% of impressions, followed by Good Morning America, SportsCenter and Today.

In primetime, iSpot notes that reality shows are surging. Among those generating the most ad impressions are Big Brother, America’s Got Talent, The Bachelorette, American Ninja Warrior and The Voice. iSpot also included CBS perennial 60 Minutes and Fox and WWE’s Friday Night SmackDown in this category.

Also: Advanced Advertising: iSpot.tv Says Advertisers Underspend on Streaming

Ad categories generating the most impressions were quick-serve restaurants, auto & general insurance, automakers, wireless services and streaming services.

Top individual brands were Progressive, Subway, Geico, Indeed and Verizon. The top new national TV advertisers were Astepro nasal spray; the National Injury Law Center; law firm Marcardi, Russotto, Spencer & Balban, which is pursuing the Camp Lejeune water-contamination lawsuit; NFL Plus; and Comiranty, the COVID vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech. 

According to iSpot, the two most likeable commercials featured animals. A PetSmart ad highlighting adoptions was No. 1 and a Hyundai ad spot shows a dad’s warming relationship to the family dog was No. 2. Both commercials had above-normal positive purchase intent scores.

The funniest ad featured Nick Saban, Deion Sanders and a goat for Aflac.

Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, iSpot suggests we should expect a holiday and retail boom in impressions compared to last year, but notes that “value may be the name of the game as audiences are putting savings on their holiday shopping list.”

The shift of the World Cup to the fourth quarter should shake up how major brands approach live sports in November and December, and Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime Video bears a close watch as the season goes on.

As more advertisers move to put ads on streaming and connected TV, “you’ll be hearing more about transparency and verification,” iSpot said, and the midterm elections will be taking up a bigger share of national linear, streaming and local TV. ■

February was also a big month for TV networks in terms of digital video sales, which were up 83%. Some of that was probably Olympic dollars feathering NBCU's Peacock’s nest. Peacock was home based for NBCU's Olympic programming.

Overall the big media companies that own television networks are making more of an effort to reach viewers through their digital and streaming platforms as traditional TV ratings shrink.

The networks’ digital sales accounted for 5% of all media spending in February. That compares to broadcast TV’s share of 17% and cable TV’s 15% share, per SMI.

Cable TV ad spending was down 7% in February and syndication was down 16%.

In a non-election year spot TV was down 3%, and local TV and cable was down 1%. 

Ad sales involving third parties, notably including media targeting, barter and ad tech companies, as well as rep firms, was up 17%. 

Total linear TV was up 2% compared to a year ago in February.

In addition to the sales by the TV networks, digital was strong, with pure-play video outfits (including YouTube and Hulu) up 32%. Also rising were spending via ad networks and ad exchanges, up 19%.

Total digital was up 25% in the month, representing 54% of all ad spend.

SMI’s data comes from invoices at major and independent agencies and it skews toward nationally advertised brands. ■

The January gain left TV spending up 0.1% from January 2020, months before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in America.

SMI said that broadcast TV was up 19%, while cable was down 3%.

The overall advertising market across all media was up 19% in January from a year ago.

As usual, digital was a big gainer, jumping 27% .Over two years, digital spending has increased 43%.

But out-of-home had an even bigger increase at 133% compared to last year. Newspapers were up 40% and radio was up 21%.

Also: Ho Ho Ho! Holiday Programming Paid Off for Hallmark, NBC, Freeform

Magazines were down 31%. Over two years, magazine ad revenues have plunged 54%.

The biggest spending advertiser category was tech, up 31%. CPG was up 2% and pharma increased spending by 8%. Autos were down 7%, but retail came back with a 29% bump and travel rebounded with spending climbing 266%. 

Standard Media Index gets it spending data from invoices at all of the major media agency holding companies and most major independents, representing 95% of national brand ad spend. ■

National TV ad sales are expected to grow by 5% to $38 billion in 2021, according to a new forecast from Magna, part of IPG’s MediaBrands unit.

Also Read: Global Ad Growth Faster Than Expected: GroupM

Magna said national TV will be helped by stronger pricing and incremental spending around the Tokyo Olympics. The growth is being reflected in what appears to be a hot upfront market for network television.

Local TV will benefit from the recovery of the auto industry, with non-political ad sales up 10%.

Traditional media owners’ cross-platform ad sales will grow by 5% in 2021, with total television ad revenue up 6%, including a 25% increase in long-form AVOD.

The overall U.S. market will grow 15% to a record $259 billion. Magna said that is the biggest growth rate in 40 years. This new forecast is 9 percentage points higher than Magna’s previous forecast made in March.

For 2022, Magna expects the U.S. ad market to grow 8% to $280 billion. That’s 2 percentage points higher than the forecast in March.

“Marketing activity and advertising spending will be fueled by strong consumption, a fast-recovering job market, the reopening of many businesses (restaurants, theaters, amusement parks…) and the return of normal events and sports schedules, plus the Olympics,” Magna said.

Digital ad sales in the U.S. will be up 24% to $179 billion, representing nearly 70% of total ad sales, and non-political linear sales will be up 4%.

Magna notes that because linear ad sales still represent the bulk of ad revenue for traditional media owners, there will be a wave of consolidation in the media industry aimed at competing with digital media players.

“Traditional media companies have no choice but to grow in scale, in order to compete with digital media giants, and invest in cross-platform advertising solutions,” Magna said.

“The U.S. TV market remains relatively fragmented following the merger of Warner and Discovery: The top three TV ad vendors (currently NBC, ViacomCBS and Warner/Discovery) will control just 60% of the U.S. TV advertising market, compared to 90%+ for the top three broadcasters in most other advanced markets,” according to Magna.

On a global basis, Magna expects advertising spending to grow 14% to a record $657 billion in 2021 following a 2.5% decline in 2020. For 2022, Magna is forecasting another 7% increase.

Keys to growth in 2021 include an overall economic recovery that benefits big ad spending categories, including automotive and entertainment, gains in digital marketing and international sports events, such as the Olympics and UEFA Euro.

Most of the growth in ad spending will come in digital, up 20% to $419 billion, accounting for 64% of total ad sales. Linear ad sales will gain 3% to $238 billion.

Countries showing the most growth include China, up 16%, and the U.K., up 17%.

“As economic recovery is stronger and faster than anticipated in several of the world’s largest ad markets (US, UK and China, in particular) and consumption accelerates, brands need to reconnect with consumers,” said Vincent Létang, executive VP, global market research at Magna. “At the same time, the acceleration in ecommerce and digital marketing adoption that started during COVID, continues full speed into 2021, fueling digital advertising spending from consumer brands as well as small and DTC businesses. This unique combination of cyclical, organic and structural drivers will lead to the strongest advertising annual growth ever monitored by Magna.”

SMI said that spending returned as local lockdowns ended. The rebound was also fueled by high levels of news viewing and the delayed start of the National Basketball Association and National Hockey League playoffs.

SMI’s figures including national broadcast, cable, syndication, spot TV and local / MSO cable.

Overall ad spending was down 5% in the third quarter after a 32% drop in the second quarter.

Digital media actually turned positive, increasing 8% and accounting for 50% of spending between July and September. Search and digital video were particularly strong.

Other media, including out-of-home, cinema, radio and print were down 46% in the third quarter.

Among advertiser categories, pharmaceuticals were the top performer up 19%. The key auto category was down 19%.

TV revenue was down 23% to $716 million, SMI said. That compares to a drop of nearly 27% in April and left the 2020-21 broadcast season to date down 11.4%.

Broadcast ad revenue fell 23.9% to $234.9 million and cable was down 24% to $446.6 million. Syndication was up 2.5% to $34.9 million.

“Although in May the national TV ad marketplace is still in the doldrums, there have been some encouraging signs ad dollars will return in the second half of the year, especially with the anticipated return of live sports. We have high hopes for a quick recovery,” said James Fennessy, CEO of SMI.

When sports are taken out of the equation, May ad revenues were down just 15%. May is normally a big month for sports with the NBA and NHL playoffs going on, the first two legs of horse racing’s Triple Crown being run and Major League Baseball in full swing. But this year COVID canceled or postponed live sports although slowly they are starting to make their way back onto the field and onto a screen near you.

A year ago, sports accounted for 17% of ad dollars, generating $52.8 million in ad revenue. This May, sports spending dropped 66% to $52.8 million and accounted for just 8% of TV revenue. ESPN and TNT, which carry the NBA were hit hardest, with TNT ad revenue plummeting 70.4% and ESPN down 58.7%.

Ad spending on entertainment shows were down 24% on broadcast TV and 16.1% for cable. 

In primetime, ad spending was down 23.9%. While all of the five English language broadcast networks were down more than 20% apiece, Univision was up 12.6% in primetime ad revenue.

On cable, even entertainment networks that grew their audiences lost revenue, HGTV, the fourth most-watched cable network, saw its viewership go up 8% but revenue drop 15.8%. Food Network’s ratings were up 9%, but revenue fell 12.6% A&E was up 2%, but ad revenue was down 0.7%.

With big increases in viewing, ad revenue for TV news was up 9.7% to $103 million in May. Broadcast news revenue was up 1.1% and cable news grew 9.7%. Fox News revenue was up 28.8%,CNN was up 26.7% and MSNBC climbed 15%.  News represented 15% of all national TV revenue, up from 11% a year ago.

The huge media buyer sees national TV dropping by 11% this year, but growing at 6% in 2021.

GroupM includes streaming outlets and offshoots like Roku and Hulu in its national TV figures. It predicts that streaming TV will do better than traditional TV, losing 3% in 2020 and gaining 15% in 2021.

In its report, the agency notes that cord-cutting reducing pay TV viewing and ad-free streaming services grabbing viewers “could fuel inflationary conditions.”

Including about $8 billion in political advertising, local TV should be up 1% in 2020. But core local TV advertising will be down 34% because of weakness in local retail and auto spending. Without an election in 2021, local TV spending will plunge by 40%.

“A potentially important assumption behind our forecasts relates to the return of professional sports. As of the writing of this document, some leagues have developed plans to resume play; however, whether schedules will proceed as intended remains to be seen,” GroupM said. “While some incremental advertising spending could certainly follow from the resumption of play, the specific impact on spending is probably limited because much of what would end up in sports inventory would end up elsewhere if sports did not resume.”

Over the longer term, GroupM sees television spending bouncing back and forth between election and non-election years, finishing basically flat at $61.3 billion in 2024.

GroupM said all U.S. advertising spending will decline by 13% during 2020, with a 4% rebound in 2021.

Digital advertising will edge down 3% in 2020 — flat including political advertising. It should grow by 12% in 2021. GroupM figures that pure-play internet media properties will have a 49% share of the total ad market in 2020 and 54% in 2021.

“Economic activity is presumed to be somewhat normal after 2022, although the scale of decline and the actions taken at the present time will all have implications on the specific pace at which the economy expands, let alone when we return back to even just 2019 levels,” the report said. “This is, of course, a key assumption on its own: the absence of much of a safety net for many people who will be severely impacted by the ongoing cataclysms represent risks to a broader economic recovery.”

The huge media buyer sees national TV dropping by 11% this year, but growing at 6% in 2011. 

GroupM includes streaming outlets and offshoots like Roku and Hulu in its national TV figures. That streaming TV will do better than traditional TV, losing 3% in 2020 and gaining 15% in 2021.

In its report, the agency notes that cord-cutting reducing pay TV viewing and ad-free streaming services grabbing viewers “could fuel inflationary conditions.”

Including about $8 billion in political advertising, local TV should be up 1% in 2020. But core local TV advertising will be down 34% because of weakness in local retail and auto spending. Without an election in 2021, local TV spending will plunge by 40%.

Related: Magna Forecasts 13.2% Drop in 2020 National Ad Revenue

“A potentially important assumption behind our forecasts relates to the return of professional sports. As of the writing of this document, some leagues have developed plans to resume play; however, whether schedules will proceed as intended remains to be seen,” GroupM said. “While some incremental advertising spending could certainly follow from the resumption of play, the specific impact on spending is probably limited because much of what would end up in sports inventory would end up elsewhere if sports did not resume.”

Over the longer term, GroupM sees television spending bouncing back and forth between election and non-election years, finishing basically flat at $61.3 billion in 2024.

GroupM said all U.S. advertising spending will decline by 13% during 2020, with a 4% rebound in 2021.

Digital advertising will edge down 3% in 2020--flat including political advertising. It should grow by 12% in 2021. GroupM figures that pure-play internet media properties will have a 49% share of the total ad market in 2020 and 54% in 2021.

“Economic activity is presumed to be somewhat normal after 2022, although the scale of decline and the actions taken at the present time will all have implications on the specific pace at which the economy expands, let alone when we return back to even just 2019 levels,” the report said. “This is, of course, a key assumption on its own: the absence of much of a safety net for many people who will be severely impacted by the ongoing cataclysms represent risks to a broader economic recovery.”

The report from Kantar Media comes amid talk of a hot fourth-quarter scatter market for network ad time following a 2015-16 upfront that might have finished stronger than early signals indicated.

Cable TV spending by advertisers was down 4.2% as consumer packaged goods marketers cut back on the medium. CPG advertising usually accounts for about 20% of cable ad spending. Kantar said the same number of brands advertised, but bought less commercial time.

Broadcast network TV spending was down 1% in the quarter, Kantar said. The drop was caused by the scheduling of NFL games so that there was one fewer weekend of games in September this year compared with last year. Had the number of games been comparable, network TV spending would have been up 3% to 4%, Kantar added.

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.

Research company Standard Media Index said cable TV advertising was down 3% in May and 4% for the first two months of the second quarter, while broadcast TV was down 8% for the month and 7% for the quarter to date.

Spending on TV bought during last year’s upfront was down in May by 4% for cable networks and 10% for the broadcasters. The scatter market was up 2% for broadcast, but down 1% for cable. TV networks did better on the digital side, with their online offerings up 10%.

“May’s results are a mirror image of the last few months,” said James Fennessy, chief commercial officer for SMI. “Digital continues to surge at the expense of other media. TV ratings were soft in May, and we see SMI’s numbers following in lock step with these results. Digital video continues to grow, and as audience measurement on mobile devices improves, we are confident that these gains will accelerate and positively impact the spend going to the major networks.”

SMI said among cable networks, ABC Family was up by double digits in May. Showing strong single-digit gains for the month were Food Network, HGTV, AMC, ESPN and Lifetime. On the broadcast side, NBC was the only network to show growth in May.

Total advertising was up 2% in May with digital providing most of the lift by growing at a 24% clip. Video sites showed a 29% gain, social media jumped 56%, and Internet radio was up 44%. Digital now controls a 30% share of media spending, up five percentage points from a year ago.

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.

New figures from Kantar Media reinforce the notion that spending on television ads slowed during the third quarter.

Kantar says expenditures on TV ads rose 6.5% in the third quarter, reducing the rate of growth for 2014 to date to 7.1%.

Growth earlier in the year was boosted by big events including the Olympics and World Cup. 

Network TV was up just 0.2% in the quarter, dropping its year-to-date growth to 3%. Spending on cable ads was up 7.9% in the quarter, mirroring its growth for the full year. National syndication was up 1.6% in the quarter and 2% for the year.

Read more at B&C here.