Linear TV Ad Campaigns Can Achieve 62% Reach By Buying 40-45 Networks

Advertising for cable TV works best when a media campaign is running on 40 to 45 linear TV networks where it can deliver a reach of 62%, according to Effectv.

The Comcast Cable advertising-sales division says this result comes from an analysis of 165,000 campaigns that ran in the first half of 2022.

“This research demonstrates that adding more networks – even as many as 40 to 45 – leads to greater linear TV reach without increasing budget levels, making campaigns more efficient and more effective,” states Travis Flood, director of customer insights of Effectv.

He adds: "Campaigns found a 6% increase in campaign reach for every five networks added.”

At the low end, the report says, buying 20 to 24 networks can provide a collective 38% reach.

Adding in five more networks to this level -- 25 to 29 -- boosts the reach number to 44%.

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One concern that Effectv acknowledges is that TV viewership is fragmenting more than ever, with consumers watching traditional TV for over 6 hours and 17 minutes a day across an average of 29 networks per household.

In addition, the report says, adding 20% to 30% of streaming ad spending is a critical component and can maximize overall campaign reach.

 

1 comment about "Linear TV Ad Campaigns Can Achieve 62% Reach By Buying 40-45 Networks".
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  1. Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, December 1, 2022 at 12:12 p.m.

    Wayne, as indicated in the table, these are monthly (? ) or quarterly ( ? ) household reach figures not persons reach levels. The latter will be lower as all a home needs to be counted as "reached" is if any set is tuned in when a commercial appears on the TV screen. Also, I gather that it's only about cable. If that is correct one would ask about the use of broadcast TV, which has considerably more coverage than cable due to homes that get over-the-air reception ( about 15% of all TV homes ). In other words, if I include two or three broadcast TV networks in the mix---even if their CPMs are higher----how many cable "networks" are also needed to attain a certain level of people reach? In such a case, I doubt that you need to buy time on 45-50 cable channels to attain a 60% people reach.

    As for streaming being added, why not? But a serious media planner would have to weigh the cost of attaining extra reach points with the added cost to determine if this made sense. This applies to any add-on, including broadcast TV. It all depends on what you start with. If your base buy is cable----at its very low CPMs, your next add-on will probably be brodcast---but not necessarily prime time---followed by streaming. But if you start with broadcast---as is often how it goes down---- cable is a far more efficient reach builder than streamning with its high CPMs.  As always,  there are other factors to be considered---like what demos you are most interested in, commercial attentiveness levels, ad clutter ratios, etc.

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