• by Wayne Friedman , January 3, 2024

Despite the growing number of ad-supported streaming platforms -- adding more ad inventory to the marketplace -- total ad inventory across linear and connected TV was down by 5% in November versus the same period a year ago, according to analysis from Madison and Wall.

Brian Wieser, writing in his Substack publication Madison and Wall, says this is attributable to continued “high volumes of ad-free viewing” which has "displaced relatively higher ad-load/ad-supported viewing on linear TV."

In addition, linear TV networks typically offer an average of 12 minutes per hour versus lower amounts for ad-supported streaming -- which can average four to six minutes an hour of advertising. (Hulu comes in at around 8 minutes per hour, per Madison and Wall).

Wieser adds that it is “also because a significant share of the growth in TV viewing originates with YouTube, which rose from 7.5% of total TV consumption to 9.0% year-over-year.” 

Although the ad-supported YouTube is the overall leader in streaming TV consumption, there is less comparable advertising inventory on the site. ”To be sure, the issue wouldn’t look quite as bad if more advertisers included YouTube as part of their TV buys.” 

Wieser also says ad inventory posted a decline, although there was 6% higher total use of TV sets.

To come up with his analysis, Wieser said he applied monthly ad-supported subscriber data from Antenna with Nielsen’s monthly viewing data from its “The Gauge" measure.