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Monday, September 9, 2013

Kantar Reports Q2 TV Sales Up 6 Percent

Cable soars 15 percent, broadcast improves 5 percent

Favorable year-ago comps and a whole bunch of additional NBA playoff games helped lift second quarter TV ad sales revenue by 6 percent to $18.4 billion, according to adweek.com.

According to a new report from Kantar Media, TV spend accounted for a little more than half (51 percent) of the $35.8 billion that was invested in all U.S. media during the period spanning April 1-June 30.

National cable once again led the way, raking in $6.94 billion in sales, up 15 percent from the year-ago $6.04 billion. Broadcast nets took in $5.29 billion in ad time, up 5 percent from $5.05 billion in Q2 2012.

The improvement on the broadcast end coincides with a somewhat less dour prime time ratings picture. In Q1, deliveries in the 18-49 demo plummeted 17 percent, marking the sharpest rate of decline for the three-month interval since Nielsen began measuring TV deliveries. Thanks in large part to an 11 percent uptick at NBC, the Big Four in Q2 were down just 4 percent in the dollar demo versus the prior-year quarter.

Broadcast numbers were also goosed by a shift of March Madness dollars, as the 2013 Final Four (April 2) was broadcast at the start of the second quarter. A year ago, CBS aired the college hoops semis on March 31. According to media buyers, the two-day shift was enough to move as much as $75 million in ad sales dollars into the April-June quarter.

Per its most recent earnings report, ratings leader CBS saw its Q2 ad sales revenue jump 11 percent, while The Voice helped NBC improve by 13 percent. ABC and Fox once again reported declines in ad dollars.

Elsewhere, it was a mixed bag. While Hispanic TV spend was up 6 percent to $1.58 billion, spot TV slid 3 percent to $3.28 billion and syndication dipped 1 percent to $1.28 billion.

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