Total TV ad impressions on streaming and linear TV dipped 3.73% to 4.23 trillion in the first half of 2024, according to a new report from iSpot.tv.
Primetime on ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox accounted for 261.9 billion ad impressions and generated $3.97 billion of the $22.2 billion in ad spending across linear TV.
Linear primetime impressions were up 2.62% from a year ago when original programming was curtailed by the strike by the writers and actors unions, and now account for 26% of all national linear TV ad impressions, iSpot said.
Other than weekend afternoons, all of the other dayparts for linear TV had lower impressions with daytime down 3.75%, early fringe off 1.36% and early morning dropping 6.48%.
Sports scored big on linear TV. NBA basketball was the top program by reach during the first half, accounting for 2.06% of ad impressions. Ads on NBA programming also generated ad attention tha twas 12% above the norm.
The Caitlin Clark effect doubled the number of TV ad impressions for the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament (even though fewer games were played) and a seven-game Stanley Cup Final fueled a 48% increase in ad impressions for the NHL.
The top network in terms of share of TV ad impressions was CBS, with 8.03%
CBS was followed by ABC, NBC, Fox News, ESPN, Ion, HGTV, Univision, MSNBC and Hallmark Channel.
Telemundo’s ad impressions were up 13%. Other big gainers included MSNBC, up 2.4%, and Hallmark Channel, up 2%.
Following the NBA on the list of top programs were men’s college basketball, the NFL, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, NCIS, Good Morning America, Friends, The Price Is Right, The Big Bang Theory and SportsCenter.
The top advertisers by impressions were Progressive, Domino’s, Burger King, Verizon Communications, Liberty Mutual, Consumer Cellular, Wendy’s, Subway, TurboTax and Allstate.
