• by Tyler Loechner  @mp_tyler, April 16, 2014

New data from ChoiceStream reaffirms the notion that news cycles have a direct impact on the number of competitors -- and ultimately the prices of -- buying ads on programmatic exchanges.

The company on Wednesday released its April audience cost calendar, which looks at data from March. The cost calendar ranks the relative cost of trading between segments.

As with ChoiceStream’s previous cost calendars, reaching travelers via programmatic exchanges was expensive yet again in March. But the company discovered some interesting moving parts, including the fact Travel: South Pacific fell out of the top 10 most expensive segments -- a position it held only one month before.

ChoiceStream reasons South Pacific travel advertisers could have backed off as a result of the vanished Malaysian flight 370. The company calls the decrease in cost to reach South Pacific travelers a potential “indirect result” of the MH370 mystery.

In a similar vein, the “Anti-virus Software” category was 29% cheaper in March compared to February, but ChoiceStream reckons the category will be one of the highest risers in April as a direct result of the “Hearthbleed” bug that swept across the Internet early in the month. The Anti-virus Software category was one of the 10 cheapest in March.

While the South Pacific travel segment dropped from the top 10, the German and Greece travel segments rose into it. As a result, the top 10 most expensive segments in March featured eight travel segments and two Holiday & Event segments: Baby Showers and Gift Giving Holidays.

“Wedding season is approaching ... and bridal showers are occurring as readily as baby showers. We may see these segments continue to increase,” ChoiceStream wrote in its infographic.

The Religious Events segment increased 4% in cost from February to March with Easter approaching, though it stands to reason the segment will be even more expensive in the next cost calendar.

With spring here, ChoiceStream says all Food & Drink segments will become more expensive, as will general home and gardening segments.