• by Wayne Friedman , April 22, 2024

Against rising national TV advertiser airings -- up 5% among the top 15 broadcast/cable networks -- national TV advertising spend is down around 1% to $9.8 billion through nearly the first four months of 2024, according to estimates by EDO Ad EnGage.

National TV airings are up to 1.15 million from 1.10 million from January 1 through April 22, according to EDO.

CBS pulled the top spot in national TV spending, with $2.5 billion (vs. $1.9 billion year before) -- largely due to its airing of the Super Bowl. CBS also had the NCAA Men’s College Basketball Tournament (“March Madness”), along with Turner networks.

ABC came in at $1.6 billion for national TV spending (vs. $1.2 billion in 2023), while NBC tallied $1.05 billion ($1.09 billion a year ago).

Due to the 2023 comparison, when it had the Super Bowl, Fox dropped to $535 million in national TV ad spend, versus $1.58 billion a year ago.

The top cable TV networks were ESPN, TNT and TBS. High-rated end-of-season college football and college basketball (“March Madness”), as well as NBA programming, contributed to strong results, with ESPN at $634 million, TNT at $643 million and TBS at $598 million.

Major cable TV networks continue to tally big commercial airings on their platforms: TBS (103,330 airings); Hallmark Channel (102,330); TNT (98,990); Food Network (97,980) and HGTV (95,480).

Broadcast networks placed ABC at the top when it comes to commercial airings at 79,190, followed by Univision with 69,670, CBS with 55,410 and NBC at 39,480.