• by Wayne Friedman , November 29, 2023

Overall third-quarter national TV/video advertising, including that of streaming TV, dipped 3.2%, according to Madison and Wall projections.

Just looking at traditional TV network/platform sellers -- sans digital-first companies like Amazon, Roku, YouTube -- the decline was worse, at 5.6%. These results include legacy TV-owned streaming TV and digital inventory.

However, analyzing the entire CTV/digital segment for all companies -- legacy TV-owned and digital-first sellers -- CTV/digital advertising was up 11.6%.  Those CTV businesses now command 34% of the total national TV/video marketplace -- up from a 30% share in the year-ago quarter. 

But there is a caveat. 

“Connected TV and digital forms of the medium are not sources of meaningful incremental growth,” writes Brian Wieser of Madison and Wall. He notes CTV primarily gains share of ad dollars shifted from legacy TV platforms.

“The overall medium faces long-term growth challenges primarily because the large advertisers who dominate TV need to shift spending away from TV to fund additional digital spending and this shift is not offset by growth in spending from newer advertisers.”

July estimates from Inside Intelligence show U.S. linear TV ad spend is $61.31 billion this year, with CTV at $25.09 billion.

Declines in third-quarter local TV advertising were more modest than national TV -- down 2.8% in the period.

Political advertising only grew 2.5% versus four years ago.

Major political advertising spikes occur in even numbered years as a result of the Presidential and major Congressional election period.