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Monday, November 13, 2017

Advertisers Boycotting Hannity Over Moore coverage


At least five companies said over the weekend that they will no longer advertise their products during Fox News' "Hannity" television show, which sparked an outpouring on Sunday of counter-protests on social media.

Keurig, Realtor.com, 23 and Me, Eloquii and Nature's Bounty all pulled their ads from the television show, in response to Fox host Sean Hannity's coverage of the sexual misconduct allegations against Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore.

The Hill is reporting Realtor.com and Keurig both said they are stopping their ads from airing during the show after being questioned about the advertisements on Twitter. Neither company specifically said their decision was over Moore coverage, but only made the announcement in response to critics.

“Thanks for bringing this to our attention. We are adjusting our media buy to no longer include this show placement. –MS,” Realtor.com wrote to a Twitter user on Friday who tweeted a clip of Hannity’s Fox News show at the company.

Keurig said in a tweet to the president of liberal group Media Matters for America that the company is stopping its ad during Hannity’s show.

“Angelo, thank you for your concern and for bringing this to our attention,” the Keurig account wrote to Angelo Carusone. “We worked with our media partner and FOX news to stop our ad from airing during the Sean Hannity Show.”




Media Matters has for months tried to put pressure on Hannity’s advertisers. In May the group published a list of the Fox News host's advertisers on its website.

The latest push comes after Hannity during his Thursday night show urged viewers not to rush to judgment regarding the allegations against Moore.

“Every single person in this country deserves the presumption of innocence,” Hannity said. “With the allegations against Judge Moore, none of us know the truth of what happened 38 years ago. The only people that would know are the people involved in this incident.”

Hannity also said Moore should drop out of the race if the allegations against him are true.

Some advertisers may not find him brand-safe, but “Hannity” led the 9 p.m. cable news ratings in October, pulling in an average of 3.2 million viewers, ahead of Rachel Maddow’s 2.5 million over at MSNBC, according to Nielsen. Not only is “Hannity” bringing in the numbers, but the boycott has led to fans doubling down on their support for the Fox News personality. Some people have even launched their own “boycotts,” posting videos of themselves smashing their Keurig coffeemakers.

According to iSpot TV, Hannity's Hannity program earned $153.5 million in advertising revenue so far this year as of October 31. That trails Tucker Carlson Tonight, which generated $161 million in ad revenue during that same time even though it attracts fewer viewers than Hannity. A year ago, Hannity's ad revenue was $161.6 million. Carlson also generated more advertising spending than the $153.7 million in ad revenue the Kelly File earned in 2016 and the $110.8 million The O'Reilly Factor netted.

Forbes reports Data from iSpot and another ad-monitoring service called Standard Media Index also shows that the average cost of a commercial on Tucker Carlson Tonight, Fox News' second most popular show, is more expensive than Hannity. According to SMI, the average price for a 30-second spot on Hannity was $9,900 as of September compared with $11,900 that Fox News earns for a Tucker Carlson commercial. iSpot TV estimates the average price of Tucker Carlson Tonight spots at $13,129, above the $12,812 earned by Hannity

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