• by Wayne Friedman , March 16, 2022

With high-profile streaming platforms continuing their aggressive efforts to gain new subscribers, paid national TV advertising for video streaming platforms continues to soar year-to-date -- now more than double the number for the same period a year ago to an estimated $486.5 million through two-and-a-half months of 2022, according to iSpot.tv.

In addition, an estimated $294.8 million in “media value” came from TV networks airing promos for their sister streaming services for the period from January 1 through March 15. The total $237.2 million for the same time period a year ago.

Disney+ has been the biggest paid national TV spender in 2022 so far, at $88 million. Amazon Prime Video is right behind at $82.3 million, followed by Apple TV+ at $67.8 million DirecTV Stream at $57 million and HBO Max with $50 million.

For national TV airings of messages, Disney+ is also in the lead with 24,673.5 “equivalized” airings -- which calculates all messages as 30-second units, followed by Discovery+ at 21,262 airings and Paramount+ with 20,761.

Discovery+ came in at $17.6 million in paid national advertising. Recently, Discovery executives said that upon completion of a deal to merge with WarnerMedia, HBO Max and Discovery+ would be bundled together for consumer subscriptions.

Overall, Disney has seen 6.6 billion in targeted impressions from all its efforts, with Paramount at 5.8 billion; Discovery+, 4.7 billion; Hulu, 3.6 billion; and Peacock TV, 3.0 billion. Overall there industry wide, there were 42.0 billion impressions for all video streaming platform advertising-promotion activity; A year ago it was 51.4 billion.

Peacock TV, one of the newer streamers, leads in terms of using its own related linear TV networks for promotion and messaging -- with a massive estimated $118.1 million in media value. Disney+ is next at $53.3 million, followed by Paramount+ at $38.1 million and Hulu, $20.9 million.