• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, March 4, 2022

A warning to viewers and advertisers: TV news content this week may be extremely disturbing. And, as a result, there have been TV business changes.

Recent CNN video footage includes rows of Ukrainian men standing in front of a very slowly moving Russian armed vehicle -- attempting to stop it from moving forward and potentially doing damage.

Then there's a Ukrainian mother in an underground bunker, subway station or other "safe" area trying to distract her baby daughter with her mobile phone.

A young twenty-something girl talking to MSNBC on Wednesday said she spent two days running for her life: “I left Kharkov two days ago when things got worse. My house got burnt by a bomb. My loved ones died... It was like giving your soul to God every second.”

Civilians are now under being attacked by the Russian military in areas including apartment buildings, a Holocaust memorial, a TV station tower, schools, and hospitals.

U.S. advertising on TV networks has witnessed some changes in its respective media schedule since the Russian invasion began about a week ago.

Over the last seven days -- February 24 through March 2 -- national advertising on major TV news networks has seen declining overall commercial airings.

On Fox News Channel, ad airings have decreased 29% to 3,060, according to EDO Ad Engage. CNN is down 15% to ad 5,770 airings, while MSNBC is down 19% to 3,860 airings.

This isn’t much of a shock. While live and near-live news viewing always seems to draw attention, highly disturbing news content can keep marketers away. But that isn’t a hard-and-fast rule.

For the week in total day viewing, EDO says there were 17.6% fewer impressions for the Fox News Channel to 5.3 billion; 1% less for MSNBC to 3.5 billion. At the same time CNN has spiked -- up 40% to 6.1 billion.

Some analysts expect dramatic news events to drive dramatically higher viewership. CNN witnessed a sharp spike in viewing on January 6, 2021 during the insurrection that took place at the U.S. Capitol.

Know this: Major news events have their cycles. Right now, viewers are demanding more content -- and at the same time, some of it is very hard to watch. Intense interest and how appropriate the business is comes with the territory.