• by Wayne Friedman , April 11, 2017

National TV advertisers continue to depart Fox News’ “O’Reilly Factor” -- but not completely.

Nearly 90 large national TV marketers -- including carmakers such as Mercedes-Benz, Lexus and BMW of North America, and major pharmaceuticals GlaxoSmithKline and Bayer -- have departed the show since sexual harassment issues surrounding Bill O’Reilly arose a week ago.

Many advertisers shifted their inventory to Fox prime-time shows. But many smaller direct-response advertisers remain.

Over the last several days, paid national advertising in the show has dropped to 5 minutes to 7 minutes per episode -- versus the 14 minutes to 15 minutes the show usually airs, according to Kantar Media.

Most of remaining advertisers are direct-response advertisers -- those who direct consumers to call a phone number or go to a site. They pay a network on a per inquiry for that commercial time. When it comes to content issues of a TV program, “direct response advertisers can be less picky,” says Jon Swallen, chief research officer of Kantar Media.

He explains that as with airline passengers, there are advertisers “that are full-fare customers.” They have the option of going into other TV shows, and those “stand by” advertisers who have fewer alternatives.

“Small-budget brands are typically opportunistic purchasers of remnant inventory,” he says.

A story in The New York Times on April 1 said O’Reilly and/or Fox paid out $13 million in settling sexual harassment claims. 

Starting a day or two later, many national advertisers pulled their advertising, resulting in a decline to 10 minutes/10 seconds of paid advertising time on April 5; dropping to 5:10 on April 6; 4:40 on April 7; and then rising somewhat to 7:10 on April 10.

Fox executives said many advertisers in “O’Reilly Factor” have had their commercials re-expressed in other Fox shows. But Swallen says this may not include direct-response advertisers -- who typically pay less than big brand consumer product marketers.

Swallen says adding more national TV advertisers into other Fox shows could create some “overcrowding.”

According to iSpot.tv, “The O’Reilly Factor” pulls in around $144 million in national TV advertising per year. Looking at around 260 episodes a year, that comes to around $560,000 in national advertising per episode.

“The O’Reilly Factor” remains a major force on Fox News and cable overall: It regularly is a top five Monday through Friday in terms of overall Nielsen viewing. For the most recent Monday through Friday period ending April 7, the show averaged 3.74 million Nielsen viewers.

Swallen says the controversy and ad defection is big deal for the network. “It’s your flagship program.”