• by Wayne Friedman , July 24, 2018

For the last weeks of the 2017-2018 TV season, the top entertainment TV show -- in terms of the price for a 30-second commercial -- was AMC’s “The Walking Dead.”

National TV advertisers paid the highest price for the long-running cable drama -- an average of $331,691 in the second quarter, according to Standard Media Index. Fox’s “Empire” was next at $322,659, with CBS’ “The Big Bang Theory” coming in at $295,138.

SMI says overall advertising on entertainment TV shows -- dramas, comedy and reality-- was primarily flat in the second quarter, slipping just 0.4%. Revenue for dramas was up 0.9%, while reality shows were 2.5% higher; with comedies adding 19.5%.

Looking at all networks revenue gains for original prime-time programming for the quarter, CBS grew 22%, while ABC added 7% and NBC and Fox each added 2%.

Comcast Corp. tallied the largest entertainment revenue in second quarter in terms of market share, at 19%. Discovery Inc, (which acquired Scripps Networks Interactive in March) was next at 15%.

Viacom had a 14% share, while Time Warner had 10%, followed by CBS Corp. at 9%; Walt Disney with 9%; A&E Networks at 7%; and 21st Century Fox at 6%.  The top eight media owners account for 88% of all entertainment advertising revenue.  

The top 12 media owners account for 98% of ad revenue.