• by Wayne Friedman , July 6, 2018

Video streaming services dramatically increased national TV advertising spending for the first six months of 2018 -- due to highly viewed sports programming, such as the Winter Olympics.

National TV revenues climbed 75% to $376.3 million from $214.6 million, according to iSpot.tv, from January 1 to July 5.

Some 70,990 airings of TV commercials for video streaming services aired this year, versus 62,608 airings the year before.

For the first six months of this year, DirecTV Now spent $103.1 million, followed by Hulu at $90.2 million; Netflix at $57.0 million; Amazon Prime Video at $34.7 million; Sling TV at $33.7 million; Amazon Fire TV at $32.1 million; and YouTube TV at $24.3 million.

Big TV networks that gained from video streaming advertising include NBC, $92.8 million (from the 2018 Winter Olympics and the Super Bowl); CBS with $32.5 million; ABC at $28.3 million; TNT with $25.0 million; and TBS at $23.9 million.

In addition to Olympics and Super Bowl spending this year, big media buys were made on the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament; NFL Football, NB, and NHL Hockey.

A year ago, Hulu, was at $63.3 million, followed by Playstation Vue with $45.0 million; Sling TV at $26.8 million; DirecTV Now with $22.9 million; Netflix at $20.6 million; and Amazon Fire TV with $14.4 million.

Last year, through the first six months of 2017, Fox took in $29.2 million, followed by ABC at $18.1 million; ESPN with $16.1 million; NBC at $16.0 million, and CBS with $15.4 million.