• by Wayne Friedman , September 24, 2008

Can TV advertisers take advantage of the current volatility and big news of the nation's financial markets? Horizon Media thinks so. As viewers run to financial cable news networks and related Web sites, the media-buying agency says marketers should pounce on ready-made opportunities.

"As the stock market plummeted last week, investors and others flocked to late-breaking news available on cable business news stations and the Internet for information," said Bill Koenigsberg, president and CEO, Horizon Media, in a release about a brief survey of financial sites and TV networks. "Advertisers should be poised to take advantage of this."

Horizon noted some key performances:

*CNBC's "Closing Bell" at 3 p.m. rocketed up 70% during the week Sept. 15-Sept. 19--with 254,000 total viewers. "Closing Bell" in the 4 p.m. hour climbed 247,000 total viewers over the previous week.

*CNN's "Lou Dobbs Tonight" grew 34,000 total viewers from the week of Sept. 15. CNN's companion site doubled its number of unique users to 4 million since Sept. 14.

*NYTimes.com had its highest daily total page views ever, while its business section saw a 54% increase in page views from the previous Monday.

*SmartMoney.com saw an increase in traffic of about 30%. Yahoo Finance has seen an increase of 167% since last Monday. Overall, the numbers on Sept. 15 were up 32% from the week before.

Horizon says for those advertisers that are looking to effectively reach as many financial viewers as possible, now is the time to buy.