The continuing decline of broadcast television can be measured by the downtrend trend in primetime advertising costs over the past decade. According to a report in AdAge, the median price of a 30-second spot during the daypart on the five key broadcast networks — ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and The CW — has fallen by 55% since 2014, based on its surveys of media-buying agencies over the years.
“The TV landscape has changed dramatically over the past decade, and so have the dollars advertisers pay to buy ad space in top shows,” AdAge’s report says, noting the wide difference in price change by network, with NBC spot prices down the least at 47%, while Fox and The CW have declined most, at 82% and 83% respectively.
“Tracking the trend line for broadcast TV pricing shows the impact of network-owned streamers, whose rates of growth for ad revenues have not yet promised a replacement for what media companies earned in linear TV, as well as the momentum of live sports and the decline of linear scripted entertainment,” the report notes.
That trend line shows primetime ad pricing’s steady decline, matching that of linear TV viewership, starting between 2014 and 2019, with median prices falling below six figures in 2019 for all networks excepting The CW. Although prices temporarily crept upward during the beginning of the pandemic, they plunged in 2023 as more networks began shifting ad dollars to streaming.
“In the last few years, streaming has become much more of a priority for our media partners,” a media buyer tells AdAge. “Over the last few years, we’ve seen rollbacks specifically in primetime for the biggest numbers, and we’ve traded digital dollars to do that. And it works for both of us, because we want our dollars to follow the eyeballs.”
With the rise of on-demand viewing and show binging, scripted series have been hit the hardest by primetime’s ad cost decline, as the price of 30-second spots on both CBS’ “NCIS” and ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” fell 56% since 2014, with the audience for the former’s season premiere down from 18.3 million to 6.4 million over those 10 years. Given reality series’ higher viewing levels week to week, ad costs have not declined at the same level, with average prices for CBS’ “Survivor” and ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” off by 29% and 24% respectively over the same period.
On the other hand, ad pricing for sports in primetime has gone in the opposite direction, with the average spot cost for NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” up 61% since 2014, while ABC’s “Monday Night Football” is the network’s highest-priced inventory over the past decade.