TV is the largest ad spending medium in the US, and its growth rates appear to have outpaced the ad market as a whole for some time. But, Q1 2013 data marks a narrowing of the gap as political and Olympic dollars exit the market and primetime ratings fall, according to MarketingCharts analysis of figures both provided and publicly released by Kantar Media. This article examines: how TV ad spending has continued to grow in the US despite a nearly saturated audience; why TV remains the prime medium for ad spending; the segments that are growing most rapidly; and projected TV ad spending growth rates up to 2017.
Note: The Kantar Media figures provided below (unless noted) were tabulated on a consistent like-for-like basis that controls for changes in monitoring coverage. Figures are therefore directly comparable across every time period.
TV ad spending growth continues to exceed the industry average, according to Kantar Media figures, but may be coming back to earth. Despite dragging up the ad market’s average growth rate during the second half of 2011 and throughout 2012 – marked by a buoyant 15.3% increase in Q3 2012 that was fueled by political and Olympic dollars – TV ad spend growth was marginal in Q1. That was largely due to a 5.2% decline in network TV revenues that was not only the result of weaker ratings but also because ad dollars for the NCAA Final Four games were moved out of Q1 and into April. (That suggests that Q2 network revenue figures will be more buoyant.) Read the rest at MarketingCharts.
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