• by Wayne Friedman , Yesterday

Although direct-to-consumer (D2C) streaming advertising has helped to offset declines in linear TV advertising, total core linear and D2C advertising among the five big TV-based media companies shows some recent declines, according to a report from Bernstein Research.

“After several quarters of gradual improvement, the trend in combined linear and D2C advertising revenue took a step back in Q2,” according to the report.

Total “normalized” ad revenue for those five companies -- Fox Corp., Comcast Corp (NBCUniversal), Walt Disney, Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery -- is projected to be down 6% in the second quarter.

Collectively, for the five companies, normalized ad revenue was down 1% in the fourth quarter of 2024 and 2% lower in the first quarter of 2025.

Core “normalized” advertising revenue does not include revenue from special sporting events (the Super Bowl and the Olympics) or the 2024 Presidential political advertising season.

Fox Corp. was the only company to see collective linear/D2C advertising growth in the second quarter -- up 8%.

Walt Disney witnessed a sharp decline, dipping around 12% in total linear TV/D2C business. Its linear TV alone was down 19%.

Disney’s executives pointed to weaker viewership and softer advertising pricing, says Bernstein.

“While the setback at Disney weighed on overall industry totals, there remain expectations that the broader improving trend in total advertising revenue should resume in the coming quarters,” writes Laurent Yoon, media analyst at Bernstein.

NBCUniversal had the best result among the total linear TV/D2C companies to show declines -- only dipping 3%. Paramount was down 4%, while Warner Bros. Discovery sank 10%.

Looking at the advertising results for only D2C, Fox and Warner Bros. posted strong double-digit percentage gains in the second quarter -- up 37% and 18%, respectively. Fox’s gains were primarily driven by Tubi, its free ad-supported/streaming service. Warner Bros. results were largely attributable to HBO Max.

NBCUniversal was up 6% in the period, while Disney slipped 7% and Paramount Skydance was down 4%.