• by Wayne Friedman , August 1, 2022

Though legacy TV companies have been promoting their streaming content, they also continue to boost their linear TV programming on their mainstream networks.

For the three months ended July 31, networks have aired 13% more national TV program promos (1.7 million spots) and 10% more impressions (248.8 billion) versus the same period a year ago, according to a MediaPost analysis iSpot.tv data.

When it comes to advertising dollar value, those promos are estimated to be worth $1.34 billion in equivalent media buys. Virtually all of it -- about $1.2 billion in advertising value -- comes from networks using their own platforms to run their program promos. The much smaller piece -- about $145.2 million -- comes from paid ads on other networks they don't own.

The big broadcast networks continue to grab the lion’s share of TV promo time: CBS (16 billion impressions); ABC (11.4 billion); and NBC (9.0 billion).

The next biggest players are two Warner Bros. Discovery networks: TLC (8.5 billion); Investigation Discovery (7.9 billion).

Fox News Channel ranked next at 6.5 billion.

Looking at individual TV ad messages, Walt Disney’s spot for Disney Channel had the best results over the period (2.6 billion), followed by TNT’s scripted drama “Animal Kingdom” (2.1 billion); and Discovery Channel’s unscripted/reality  “Naked and Afraid XL” (1.8 billion).

The most promoted broadcast TV programs were mostly summer fare: CBS’s “The Challenge: USA” (1.7 billion); and NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” (1.6 billion). 

Other perennial summer series also posted media impressions: CBS’s “Big Brother” (1.42 billion) and Discovery Channel’s (1.37 billion).