• by Wayne Friedman , June 3, 2009

Looking at this year's nervous TV advertising upfront market, TV network executives should take some comfort in the recent past -- especially in contrast to other media.

Last season, the five big English-language networks took in a collective $13.2 billion from all dayparts from September 2008 to March 2009 -- a stiff 6% decline versus a year ago, according to TNS Media Intelligence.

"Network TV is relatively better than other major media categories," says Jon Swallen, senior vice president of research for TNS Media Intelligence. Swallen notes that other media, especially local TV, national magazines, and local newspapers, have been stung with much greater ad revenue declines -- estimates of around 20% to 40% and more.

NBC was the only network to improve year-to-year in TNS' analysis -- a gain of 4.1% to $3,005.9 billion. Most of that gain came from the Super Bowl, which Swallen says regularly brings in around $200 million to whichever network airs the event. From September 2007 to March 2008, NBC's take was $2,888.1 million.

That $200 million swing makes sense when looking at Fox, which had the Super Bowl the year before. Fox's total ad revenues declined about this much -- 6.5% to $2,964.5 million from $3,171.8 million in the previous season.

Fox came in at fourth place among all networks, which may look strange because it comes in first place in the prime-time daypart. But it has one major asterisk attached here: Fox only programs 15 hours a week versus the other network's 22-hour schedules.

Of the big four, CBS still remains atop the heap of all networks with $3,843.0 million. CBS sank 11% from the broadcast season before, according to TNS estimates, for all dayparts. After NBC, ABC posted the best results -- only slipping 3.7% to $3,069.8 million from the year before.

The worst performance came from the CW this past season, off 30.9% to $361.4 million. Much of this was due to the network giving up its Sunday night programming to an outside program supplier.

Swallen says the 6% decline for the networks' revenues is still a steep one, especially in contrast to networks' previous years. For example, broadcast networks actually gained 1.8% in overall revenue in the September 2007-March 2008 season versus the season before.

The previous season was down 2.8% versus September 2005-March 2006 -- a year that climbed a strong 8.3% versus September 2004-March 2005 to $14,547 million, its best results ever. The year before that also posted a nice gain for broadcast networks -- a 4.2% hike to $12,661.2 million.

 

Network TV advertising spend ($ in millions)
NETWORK	SEP 2007 -MAR 2008		SEP 2008 -MAR 2009	% Change
ABC	$3,188.4		$3,069.8	-3.7%
CBS	$4,323.8		$3,843.0	-11.1%
NBC	$2,888.1		$3,005.9	4.1%
FOX	$3,171.8		$2,964.5	-6.5%
CW	$523.0		$361.4	-30.9%
GRAND TOTAL	$14,095.1		$13,244.6	-6.0%
Copyright 2009. TNS Media Intelligence
Note: Public Service Announcements are excluded from these figures