• by Wayne Friedman , 4 hours ago

Boosted by NFL and college football, national linear TV advertising revenues grew a modest 4% to $8.77 billion in the third quarter, according to iSpot.

Total TV advertising impressions sank nearly 3% to $1.7 trillion, with national TV linear ad airings slipping 1% to 12.2 million.

As live TV programming becomes ever more valuable, the NFL and college football posted double-digit percentage growth in third-quarter advertising impressions.

In addition, live news programming content posted nine of the top 20 programs on TV in terms of reach.

CBS took the top spot for TV ad impression reach (7.04%), followed by Fox News Channel (6.86%), ABC (6.38%), NBC (6.19%) and ESPN (3.67%).

CBS, Fox News Channel, and ABC all moved up one place in the ranking versus a year ago. NBC dropped three places from a year ago, when it aired the Summer Paris Olympics.

Univision moved up four places to 8th place with a 2.34% ad reach share.

Overall Spanish-language programming posted a 4.4% gain of TV ad impressions in Q3 2025. This includes a 10% jump from Univision.

Top revenue-producing advertiser for CBS was Progressive Insurance: Fox News Channel best was with LeafFilter, ABC (Target), NBC (Progressive) and ESPN (Wendy’s).