National TV Ad Spend Trims Losses, Down 2% For November

November’s national TV advertising narrowed its spending losses from the preceding months due to the NFL programming and games that were in full swing -- down 2% from the year-ago period, according to Standard Media Index.

Still, it wasn’t all good news.

Although NFL and college football brought in a collective $1.1 billion for the month, SMI says the NFL lost 15% in national TV advertising dollars for November versus the same period a year ago.

The result only improved when adding in Amazon Prime Video’s “Thursday Night Football” games. When these were added, total NFL national TV ad spend was down 8%.

Looking at overall national TV sports advertising, however, yields a brighter picture.

Live sports programming grew 12% in the month to what SMI said was an all-time high, as a result of the “2022 FIFA World Cup,” which added $208 million in the period, while Major League Baseball’s four World Series games added $69 million and NCAA Football added $44 million.

advertisement

advertisement

Sports outperformed entertainment -- down 10% -- and news programming, which was 8% lower.

Since the summer, national TV ad spending has made some recovery: sinking 31% in July, while August was down 11%, September saw a 4% decline, October was down 10% and November slipped 2%.

Looking at the broader picture -- the quarter-to-date (October and November) period -- national TV ad spend is down 6% from a year ago.

Upfront-placed TV dollars are 2% lower than a year ago, while scatter national TV advertising sank a massive 19% and direct response saw a 17% decline.

Cable TV is down 7%, while broadcast TV is 4% lower and syndication TV sank 19%.

Next story loading loading..