3Q Broadcast TV Revs Plummet Nearly 23%

by Wayne Friedman , December 18, 2009

The advertising hits just keep on coming for TV stations, networks and programmers -- and not in a good way.

Overall, broadcast television ad revenues were down 22.6% to $8.8 billion in the third quarter, versus the same time period a year ago, according to the Television Bureau of Advertising.

Local TV stations slipped 28.1% to $3.1 billion, with network TV off 21.5% to $4.7 billion. The best news came with syndicated TV, which dropped a modest 7.2% to $1.0 billion.

The period was particularly rough compared to the broader nine-month period in 2009 to date, per TVB. Over this period, network TV dropped 10.7%, syndicated TV was off 2.8%, and local broadcast TV plummeted 27.4%. This brings an overall nine-month loss for broadcast TV to 15.7%, at $28.9 billion.

The big three categories continue to show declines in the third quarter: automotive, down 49.8%; communications/telecommunications, off 22.3%; and restaurants, cutting back 14.8%.

Other major categories went in the same direction: Car and truck dealers declined 32.6%; furniture stores pulled back 19.8%; insurance marketers were down 21.0%; schools, colleges and camps shrank 11.0%; and food and food products were off 7.0%.

Only three of TV's top 25 ad categories showed gains in local broadcast. This group included legal services advertisers -- the 10th-biggest local TV advertiser -- up 3.3%. Supermarkets and other food stores improved 3.7%, and household products such as soaps and cleaners were up 6.4%.

Political advertising, in 19th place, lost 83.9% to $28.4 billion during the period.

3rd QUARTER 2009 SUMMARY
($000)

	3rd Qtr 2009	3rd Qtr 2008	% Change
Spot TV*	3,119,714.9	4,336,851.7	-28.1
Syndication	1,022,248.4	1,101,120.4	-7.2
Network TV	4,656,588.8	5,931,483.2	-21.5
Total Broadcast TV	8,798,552.1	11,369,455.3	-22.6

JAN-SEPT 2009 SUMMARY
($000)

	Jan-Sept 2009	Jan-Sept 2008	% Change
Spot TV*	8,659,740.9	11,924,769.8	-27.4
Syndication	3,208,224.7	3,301,801.5	-2.8
Network TV	17,033,481.3	19,072,455.5	-10.7
Total Broadcast TV	28,901,446.9	34,299,026.8	-15.7



*Includes both local and national spot activity in the 100+ markets measured by TNS/MI.

Copyright 2008, 2009. TNS Media Intelligence

broadcasting, earnings, television

4 comments about "3Q Broadcast TV Revs Plummet Nearly 23%".

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Mike Einstein from the Brothers Einstein, December 21, 2009 at 9:33 a.m.
When revenues are down 23%, they have to increase nearly 30% to get back to where they were before they dropped.
And when this kind of story repeats itself quarter after quarter, we can only conclude that we are playing witness to the demise of advertising as intermediary.
Reply

Stanford Crane from NewGuard Entertainment Corp, December 21, 2009 at 10:11 a.m.

Wayne, I hope you meant $28.4M, not $B for political advertising in the quarter. Now the question is with viewership up on TV to record levels, where did the dollars go. Cable?

Jonathan Mirow from BroadbandVideo, Inc., December 21, 2009 at 12:57 p.m.

I bet it's that wacky internet thing that's causing this! Those darn geeky computer guys - what will they think of next?

Dave Woodall from fiorano associates, December 22, 2009 at 1:13 a.m.

That's funny...last month I was chatting with a friend who works in National Sales for a local affiliate. She told me their Q309 set an all-time record for quarterly revenue. Doesn't exactly sound like the end of advertising to me.