ers’ strike threatens TV advertising revenue

The Writers Guild of America went on strike last May. They put new episodes of scripted shows on hold while they negotiate a better contract. What does this mean for TV advertising revenue? Media Radar, an ad sales intelligence firm, found that the revenue from TV ads is falling for talk shows, sitcoms and soap operas. This category accounts for 9% of $26 billion.

Take a look at the results of this study.

Scripted television is down. In the first half 2023, TV ads accounted for $26 billion. Talk shows, sitcoms, and soap operas accounted for 9% of that amount, or $2.36billion. These shows’ sales are down by 5% from H1 2022.

The full impact of the WGA’s strike will not be felt until the end of this year, as ad slots can often be purchased several months in advance.

Primetime Programming. Primetime television programming has seen a 15% decline this year.

Over the same period, TV talk shows saw a 1% drop in advertising.

In a press release, MediaRadar CEO Todd Krizelman stated that “Lucrative Late-Night Talk Shows have been off air for several months.” Soon, fall programming including talk shows and soap operas, as well as primetime sitcoms, should be airing. This is expected to take longer than usual, as they depend on summer script writers.

Dig deep: Four tips for getting the most from CTV advertising

Bad timing. Up until the strike, some scripted shows had been gaining revenue from advertising.

Ads for soap operas, for example, rose by 17% in the first half of ’22 — from $101.5 to $118.6 millions.

Sitcoms also saw a 16% increase in revenue, with $2.2 billion earned by H1 2023 compared to $1.9 billion the previous year.

Why do we care? The study included both traditional and digital media. Digital ad spending is about three quarters of the total spend this year. CTV represents, on average 10% of all digital , and is rapidly increasing .

The streaming services allow you to watch old episodes. On traditional TV they are called reruns. But digital TV has new shows for “appointment watching” – like Max’s “Succession”, which just ended. And they’re on hold.

The TV advertising revenue has been stagnant for the entire summer. The real impact of WGA’s strike will be felt this fall.

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