Local TV broadcasters could see a 3.4% decline in core advertising in the next year and a half, according to a report from Moody’s Investors Service. Core advertising revenues — which excludes political advertising — have seen “demand under pressure as audiences shift their media consumption to OTT streaming video services and advertisers and agencies reallocate their budgets to digital media,” the report says.
Jessell | Cannabis A Potential Balm For Core Advertising
The cannabis business presents strong opportunities for broadcast’s core advertising, but it’s a legal and regulatory minefield. Still, there’s hope broadcasters can get a much-needed safe harbor to accept ads for properly vetted CBD and marijuana products via banking legislation in the Senate.
What’s In Store In ‘19? Jessell’s 8-Ball Knows
TVNewsCheck’s prescient editor, Harry Jessell, asks his infallible Magic 8-Ball to reveal how 2019 will unfold for various aspects of the television business, including core advertising, political advertising, retrans, mergers, FCC ownership caps, Big-4 duopolies and ATSC 3.0. He then expounds on the answers since, while all-knowing, the 8-Ball is notoriously terse.
Pivotal Research Group estimates that traditional, linear local TV broadcast advertising — excluding political ad revenues — will sink 2.2% in 2017, to $15 billion. This will be followed by another 4% decline in 2018 to $14.4 billion; a 4.2% decline in 2019 to $13.8 billion; a 4.5% drop to $13.2 billion in 2020; and a 4.7% pullback to $12.6 billion in 2021.
