Oscars Takes Viewer Hit, But Sees Higher Ad Revenues

While this year’s version for the Oscars took another viewership hit, advertising revenue made gains versus last year’s event.

Around $120 million in advertising revenue was pulled in for this year’s event -- $101.9 million for “The 2016 Oscars” event itself, and $17.2 million coming from the pre-game “Live From the Red Carpet Ceremony,” according to iSpot.tv.

For “The 2015 Oscars,” revenue totaled around $104 million -- $100.3 million, and $3.9 million the “Live From The Red Carpet” event.

Top advertisers this year were Samsung Mobile ($18.8 million); Kohl’s ($10.6 million); Cadillac ($9.6 million); AT&T ($7.4 million); American Express ($6.8 million); Android ($6.4 million); IBM ($5.45 million); and McDonald's ($3.8 million).

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A total of 51 spots ran from 28 brands for the 2016 program, according to iSpot.tv. Overall estimates were that Oscar advertisers paid between $2 million and $2.3 million for a 30-second commercial.

ABC also ran eight TV promotional spots for its shows; a total of 13 airings for those messages. Plus, Netflix and PBS ran individual thirty-second TV commercials.

Nielsen preliminary viewership numbers said this year’s event pulled in 34.3 million overall average viewers, down 6% from the 36.6 million overall average viewers a year ago. This year’s award ceremony was also 4% lower among 18-49 viewers -- a 10.4 rating versus a 10.8 rating.

1 comment about "Oscars Takes Viewer Hit, But Sees Higher Ad Revenues ".
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  1. Don Klos from KMC, March 1, 2016 at 1:01 p.m.

    I'd like to know what the ratings were at the very beginning, v.s. what they were a half hour into the show.

    I've heard a few people say they tuned in, had heard enough of the racial issue spanking, but whan it kept on going adnauseum they turned it off, including Kathy Lee Gifford who shared that yesterday. I have to admit had I not really wanted to follow it I had thought of turning it off too, but was too invested. As it kept going I kept wishing I weren't so into it.

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