With the strike by the Writers Guild of America over and talks progressing between the studios and the actors union, sales-tracking platform MediaRadar estimated that television ad sales were down 10% to $14.4 billion from May to August, compared to a year ago when there was no strike.
MediaRadar expects ad revenue to also be lower in September.
Whether or not ad revenues will perk up as scripted programming returns will be important to the health of the TV business. Spending on talk shows and soap operas had been rising before the strike.
While the writers were on the picket line, late-night TV ad spending took the biggest hit, dropping 15% to $1.4 billion.
“Late night is one of the most profitable hours of TV, and a lack of talk shows during the writers strike really affected advertisers,” Todd Krizelman, CEO and co-founder of MediaRadar, said. “Now that the strike is over and talk shows are returning, we should see advertisers eager to pour money into those slots.”
Primetime was down 11% to $6.2 billion.
Talk shows — some of which continued to air new episodes — were down 6% to $300 million.
Soap operas were up 21% to $84.4 million. Soap actors are covered under an agreement that doesn’t expire until July and new episodes were aired.
