Car, Retail Ads Slow Down On Broadcast TV

A fourth-quarter 2014 slowdown in broadcast TV advertising came primarily from automotive and financial service/real estate marketers. Automotive companies -- the biggest category, with a 14% share -- slipped 5% to $1.019 billion, while financial service/real estate companies, with an 11% share, were down 4% to $774.2 million.

In addition, retail marketers -- the second-biggest category after autos, with a 12% share -- were down 1% to $898.3 million.

These results came from MoffettNathanson Research analysis via Kantar Media data.

Other big categories were also off: The computers/software category dropped 4% to $471.5 million, and restaurants were down 4% to $411.2 million. Broadcasting's best category was pharma/medical, improving 26% to $626.3 million. Overall, the top 20 categories showed a 1% improvement on broadcast networks/stations to $7.3 billion.

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Some similar categories showing major declines were also present for cable network advertising activity in the fourth quarter: Computer/software marketers were down 11% to $230.5 million, and financial services/real estate was off 3% to $688.7 million.

Automotive did improve with cable, however, gaining 3% to $696.1 million. Cable networks’ biggest category, media/entertainment, with a 13% share, surged 21% during the fourth quarter to $885.1 million. Top 20 ad categories on cable networks grew 3% to $7.05 billion.

Another important growth category was telecommunications companies, which grew 4% to $794.6 million on broadcast, for an 11% share. Pharma/medical improved 11% on cable networks to $451.7 million, to reach a 6% share.

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