• by Wayne Friedman , September 21, 2016

Commercial advertising loads per hour continued to rise in August -- up 2.4% -- with total TV commercial impressions up slightly at just under 1%.

The average number of minutes per hour devoted to advertising grew to 10.9 from 10.6 in August 2015, according to Brian Wieser, senior research analyst, Pivotal Research Group.

In percentage terms, AMC Network grew the most -- 5% to 12.7 minutes from 12.1. Discovery was also higher -- 4%, to 10.1 advertising minutes per hour from 9.7.

Viacom continues to lead all TV network groups with the highest ad loads, although it has dipped a bit, at 15.0 minutes. Scripps was the next highest at 13.7 minutes -- down from 13.8. CBS clocked in the lowest average -- 7.4 minutes.

On the flip side, NBCUniversal networks, even with the Rio Olympics, witnessed a drop in advertising minutes per hour -- down to 11.0 from 11.3.

Still, largely because of the Olympics, NBC commanded the greatest share of total commercial impressions -- to 20.8% from 14.2% in August 2015 for 18-49 viewers in Nielsen C3 (the average commercial minute rating plus three days of time-shifted viewing).

Wieser says competing network groups witnessed a “mild” decline in share -- with CBS, Fox and Time Warner each down 6%. CBS was at a 4.1% share; Fox, 6.6%; and Time Warner, 12.2%.

The total TV industrywide number of commercial impressions grew 0.9% in August to 621 billion impressions.