• by Wayne Friedman , September 27, 2017

Social media activity continues to grow -- and ad-supported TV continues to be a big beneficiary.

For example, during the four-week period of May 15 to June 11, ad-supported TV accounted for two-thirds (67%) of the top 10 trending Twitter topics -- 365 topics in all -- according to the Video Advertising Bureau, an advertising trade association for traditional linear TV networks.

By comparison, ad-supported TV accounted for 79% in a similar four-week October-November 2016 period coming from 437 Twitter topics.

In both cases, the VAB data looked at prime-time periods from 8:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.

Sports TV programming remains a top category. In the May-June period, it comprised 56% of total ad-supported TV topics -- with entertainment at 40%. From October-November 2016, sports had a 68% share and entertainment shows 25%.

Overall, 126 individual TV programs were in the top 10 of Twitter results during the four-week period in May-June versus 97 programs in the October-November 2016 period.

By comparison, the VAB says only a handful of nontraditional TV-video platforms programs made the top trending list in the recent May-June period: premium TV networks (HBO, Showtime, Starz), 8; Netflix, 3; other SVOD platforms (UFC, WWE Network), 4: and YouTube, 2.