Is TV Making Up for Lost Viewership by Stuffing More Ads Onscreen?

Beset by declines in audience, a majority of US cable networks stuffed more commercials onto their air in the fourth quarter of 2014, with Viacom boosting its ad load by 13 percent across its cable networks; A+E Networks increasing the number of commercials it runs by 10 percent; and Discovery Communications adding 9 percent more TV spots.

On the broadcast side, Fox raised the number of spots it aired by 15 percent in the quarter, said independent analyst Michael Nathanson, while ABC and CBS reduced theirs by 2 percent and NBC cut its by 6 percent. Ad spending on TV in the fourth quarter fell by 2 percent. Among the factors was a 9 percent dip in overall ad spending by automotive advertisers, the largest spender on all types of advertising during the period.