• by Wayne Friedman , January 31, 2022

Advertising video-on-demand spending will help boost overall U.S. TV spending in 2022 -- estimated to rise 6.4% to $86.4 billion, according to MoffettNathanson Research.

TV ad spending on AVOD platforms is estimated for growth of 43% to $11.2 billion, from $7.8 billion in 2021.

Local TV stations and local cable -- primarily due to an expected big political advertising year -- are projected to climb 9% to $23.8 billion and $5.2 billion, respectively.

The research group expects the largest component of U.S. TV advertising -- national cable TV networks -- to remain virtually unchanged (down 0.5%) to $28.8 billion.

Broadcast networks will slip a bit -- off 2% to $14.6 billion -- with syndication falling 4% to $2.8 billion.

The company notes that overall broadcast TV ratings in the fourth quarter are up 3% year-over-year, largely due to rising NFL TV viewership. Television News Daily analysis of Nielsen data showed a 7.3% increase in regular-season NFL games to average 16.3 million viewers.

Looking at major pure-play advertising video-on-demand services, Fox Corp.-owned Pluto and ViacomCBS’ Tubi each command 9% of the streaming minutes relative to industry leader Netflix. The Roku Channel is at 6%.

Analyzing platforms that have premium TV-video programming advertising video-on-demand (AVOD) options, Walt Disney-owned Hulu was the nearest competitor to Netflix -- averaging 41% of Netflix's total streaming minutes -- followed by HBO Max at 18% and Peacock with 6%.