• by Wayne Friedman , 2 hours ago

Among the digital-first premium streaming services, Amazon Prime Video is continuing to spend big on national TV networks for advertising and promotion -- with an estimated $52.5 million since the start of this year through May 17, according to iSpot.tv.

This was driven by 5,874 airings resulting in 2.8 billion impressions for its new sports programming addition: NBA basketball. Spending is up from a year ago -- to $43.3 million in national TV spend.

Live sports continues to be the main beneficiary of this spend, led by NFL football, NBA basketball, and college football and basketball on networks including ESPN, NBC, CBS, and ABC.

Netflix, the largest premium streamer, is also raising its TV advertising-promotional profile with nearly double its spend of a year ago -- $31.9 million.

This year, Netflix’s spending produced 306.6 million impressions from 380 airings.

Netflix touted shows like "The Adventures of Cliff Booth," "The Rip," "Frankenstein" and the Oscar-nominated movie "Train Dreams."

TV shows benefiting her include NFL football on the major networks, including NBC's airing of the Super Bowl as well as NBC’s "Saturday Night Live," and "WWE Friday Night Smackdown."

Last year, Netflix spent $16.3 million in national TV advertising, with 599 million impressions from 443 airings.

Its premium streaming service, Apple TV, is at $17.1 million -- lower than the $22.2 million a year ago.

This year it touted new efforts including: "The Moment," "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" and “Hijack,” and "No Notes." Apple TV produced 852.5 million impressions from 4,191 airings.

Legacy TV-owned streaming services including Paramount Skydance's Paramount+, NBCU's Peacock and Walt Disney's Disney+, ESPN and Hulu -- benefit from those companies' owned TV network advertising inventory. Digital-first streamers need to spend for advertising on those networks.