National TV ad spending rose 3.3% in the second quarter -- but much of those gains went to lower CPM cable TV shows.
Standard Media Index -- now modeling the
entire national TV ad market based on data from 70% of media agency bookings -- says the national TV ad market was driven by cable networks, which rose 6.5% during the period.
Broadcast
national TV was flat from the second quarter a year ago -- with the top four broadcast networks slipping 2.5%.
SMI says cable prime-time programming witnessed a 10% growth in 30-second
commercial unit pricing to an average $8,370 a spot -- with the biggest growth on Sundays, which rose 33%. Major original episodes of cable network shows debuted on that day.
Daytime cable
shows grew 8% to $1,413.
The company says cable was able to gain because of general lower cost-per-thousand viewer (CPM) programming.
By contrast, broadcast network shows declined in
unit pricing in all dayparts: Prime time was down 5% to $114,100; late fringe slipped 10% to $26,400; and morning shows were off 4% to $32,500.
Broadcast late-fringe big unit price declines
also witnessed a jump in audience deficiency units -- makegood inventory for guaranteed deals to marketers. Late fringe ADUs jump to 22% of all network inventory from 15% in the second quarter 2015.
Prime-time ADUs were at 16% of all that daypart inventory, and morning was at 16% as well.
On the flip side, cable’s makegood inventory dropped as a total percentage of inventory:
Daytime went to 11% from 18%; prime time to 12% from 19%.
SMI says cable networks were helped by higher ratings from big sporting events -- as well as higher viewing on cable news channels due
to the strong interest in this year’s political election season.