Standard Media Index, which culls 80% of national U.S. media spend from five of six media agencies, said scatter advertising revenue rose 8% in April -- 13% for cable networks and 1% for broadcast networks. This follows national TV’s March scatter revenue results which improved 11%.
Looking at scatter and upfront dollars from deals made in 2015, national TV advertisers spent 6% more revenue in April versus a year ago. Broadcast networks grabbed 7% more revenue from upfront deals; cable networks took in 10% more in upfront revenue. All national TV upfront revenues in April are up 9%.
SMI says this is “promising sign for both cable and broadcast networks even as TV viewership continues to slide.”
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Total television -- national TV, spot TV, syndication and local cable -- climbed 5% in revenue in April versus a year before.
Overall, U.S. media revenues rose 7% in the month -- with digital media revenues continuing to be the best performer, up 15% over the same month a year ago. Three key digital areas continue to soar -- social media, 59% higher; video, 31% more; and digital ad networks/exchanges, 26%.
Out of home was also a big performer -- gaining 12% in the month. Down-trending media segments: magazines, 5% lower; newspapers, falling 15%; and radio slipping 1%.
Best performing advertiser categories were quick serve restaurants (up 44%); prescription pharmaceuticals (34% higher) and automotive vehicles and dealerships (adding 22%).
Wayne, I think when referring to the various platforms----digital, TV, magazines, radio, etc. it is a good idea to state the dollar amount as well as the percent gain or loss. A lot of people who read that digital video is "up 30%" may think that its spending is larger than, say, magazines, which are "down 5%". A small point, but I've seen this happen many times.
Wayne, sorry to be a pest, but in your table all of the individual TV segments show increases much higher than the figure for all of TV. How can that be?
@Ed (MediaPost Editor Joe Mandese here). The answer is that spot TV (-10%) share of the total was enough to bring the total's average down to +5%.
Here are the shares by national TV type, courtesy of SMI:
Share – April 2016
Cable TV 45.1%
Broadcast TV 36.0%
Spot TV 9.9%
Syndication 4.0%
Local/MSO Cable 3.8%
Ad Sales House 1.1%
Other 0.1%
100.0%
Thanks, Joe. My mistake on the spot TV figure, I didn't note that it was a minus not a plus. I see that we are talking only about national spot, which has been lagging for some time. I believe that local spot is doing much better, especially thanks to the political activity in various states. This is probably true of spot cable as well.