• by Wayne Friedman , December 30, 2020

Amidst the pandemic, TV networks used their own airwaves to promote programming to a greater degree than a year ago -- to a great extent coming from cable networks.

Since the last half of September, when the 2020-2021 season began, through December 29, broadcast and cable networks placed 1.8 million program promo airings -- up 20% over the same period a year ago (1.5 million), according to iSpot.tv.

This year that amounted to 286 billion impressions, versus 305.6 billion impressions a year ago.

Many TV networks have been strapped by delayed, shut-down or delayed TV productions, resulting in greater declines in viewership in the fourth-quarter overall in prime time as well as daytime ratings.

Top media value for those impressions by network is as follows: CBS at $345.6 million, followed by NBC with $338.2 million, Fox at $293.9 million, ABC with $284.8 million and Nickelodeon at $113.4 million.

Most of the promo impressions went into NFL Football and college football. The best-producing networks in terms of impressions for those promos were CBS, at 19.2 billion, followed by NBC with 12.9 billion, Investigation Discovery at 12.6 billion; Fox with 11.6 billion and ABC at 11.4 billion.

Cable networks in general upped their overall program promo exposure.

This included eight of Discovery Inc.'s major networks, which placed the most during the more current period, rising over airings versus a year ago:

Destination America (50,866), Discovery Family Channel (45,578), Science Channel (40,262), American Heroes Channel (39,494), Investigation Discovery (39,329), Discovery Life Channel (32,473), TLC (29,876), and Oprah Winfrey Network (29,248).