Advertising spending on national linear TV fell 1% in June to $3.138 billion, according to new figures from Standard Media Index.
Spending on cable TV dropped 12% to $1.946 billion, while broadcast increased 23% to $1.05 billion, SMI said. Syndication grew 33% to 142.2 million.
The June performance left linear TV spending for the second quarter down 1% at $9.617 billion. Cable was down 1%, broadcast was down 2% and syndication was up 6%.
For the quarter spending on sports was up a whopping 21%, mostly because the NBA Finals were played in June this year versus July last year. Entertainment programming was down 5% and news was down 7%.
Spending resulting from last years strong upfront generated a 3% increase in the quarter, while scatter was down 15%. Direct response spending was down 4%.
The drop in cable spending meant that Warner Bros. Discovery’s share of the maret fell 18% in June from a year ago to 21%, still leading all media companies. The Walt Disney Co. was up 11% to 19%. Comcast was down 7% to 18%, Paramount was up 7% to 16% and Fox was up 18$ to 5%.
Top spending ad categories in June were consumer packaged goods, down 13% year over year, pharmaceuticals up 0.2%, general business, up 13%, financial services, down 22% and tech, down 7%. Entertainment and media was up 34% and autos were up 7%. ■
