Equitable's No Longer Questionable: Data Reveals Nets Position Some Advertisers Better Than Others

At a time when advertisers are seriously reconsidering the relative value of the commercial positions they get in their TV advertising buys, new data is being made public, which reveals that the networks do not honor a basic tenet of their advertising sales agreements: the equitable rotation of advertising units.

The data, which was provided to MediaDailyNews by media auditing firm Media IQ, proves that the major broadcast networks treat some marketers much better than others, an epiphany that could become a major source of contention among marketers, their agencies and the television networks.

"It's supposed to be equitable. That's what the sales agreements with the networks say. But they are not," says Michael Lotito, a former media agency chief who founded Media IQ two years ago to help marketers and their agencies improve the quality of their media investments.

The report, the Media IQ Commercial Positioning Monitor, analyzed all of the commercial advertising schedules run by the major broadcast and cable networks during the 2003-04 TV season (October 2003 through June 2004) for all advertisers and advertising categories. Using the percentage of so-called "A" positions - the first position in a commercial break - that were given to an advertiser as its main criteria, Media IQ has developed a scoring system that, when factored with other variables, provides a new report card for advertisers and agencies to negotiate with the networks.

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The percentage of A positions were chosen, because they have been proven to be demonstrably better than positions that come later in a commercial pod in terms of holding viewers who that tend to switch channels or fast-forward during commercial breaks.

While the assumption is that the networks provide fair and equitable rotations of A position commercials to advertisers, the Media IQ data shows marked and surprising disparities among the major advertising categories on the six broadcast networks.

Lotito says the percentage of A positions deemed equitable varies by network and daypart depending on how each network manages its ad inventory, including the amount of commercial time it sells, the number of units of varying lengths and the type of daypart they air in. However, on average, he says, about 21 percent of a typical advertiser's commercials will run in A positions.

According to Media IQ's data, the actual average for advertising categories on each network can vary by as much as 33 percentage points, a range Lotito says is to broad to be deemed happenstance.

For example, nearly half (48 percent) of the ads garnered by entertainment category advertisers on UPN, were in A positions, while only 14 percent of soft drink category commercials airing on CBS ran in A positions (see table below).

Lotito says the soft drink category also got relatively shabby treatment on the other major broadcast networks, which he termed "surprising," given the perception that it is such a fierce market competitor, representing brands like Coca-Cola and Pepsi.

In general, the entertainment category, in which the major motion picture studios are known to pay top dollar to secure the most advantageous commercials possible, generated the most A positions of any categories on the networks, except one: NBC. Entertainment advertisers ranked only fifth on NBC, but the telecommunications category ranked No. 1. Lotito says that analyzing these patterns may reveal network sales strategies, including the ad categories they are working hardest to develop.

Media IQ plans to make the Monitor available to the readers of MediaPost on a monthly basis, begging with this installment.

Top Ad Category Ranking/Percent Of 'A' Positions Received


--ABC-- --CBS-- --Fox-- --NBC-- --UPN-- --WB--
Automotive 3 26% 5 24% 8 30% 4 30% 4 31% 11 19%
Cleaners 6 22% 6 23% 4 39% 3 31% 13 0% 2 26%
Computers 9 20% 11 17% 13 25% 7 30% 5 28% 13 0%
Drugs 4 25% 3 25% 3 40% 12 28% 3 32% 6 23%
Entertainment 1 32% 1 34% 1 43% 5 30% 1 48% 1 29%
Financial 11 19% 8 21% 12 26% 10 30% 12 14% 4 24%
Food 10 19% 10 18% 2 41% 9 30% 11 15% 3 24%
Miscellaneous 13 15% 7 22% 7 30% 11 28% 8 21% 12 19%
Personal Care 12 17% 9 21% 6 34% 2 31% 9 21% 9 20%
Restaurants 5 23% 4 24% 5 38% 8 30% 6 25% 8 21%
Retail 2 29% 2 26% 11 27% 6 30% 2 34% 5 24%
Soft Drinks 7 21% 13 14% 9 28% 13 28% 10 15% 10 20%
Telephone 8 21% 12 16% 10 28% 1 33% 7 22% 7 22%

Source: Media IQ Commercial Positioning Monitor, October 2003-June 2004. Analysis reflects all network units of 30-seconds or more.
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