Data: Strike impacting ad spending
August 10, 2023
According to media data and collaborative planning tools specialist Guideline, June 2023 marked the third lowest month in nearly seven years for proportion of spend against new entertainment programming (20.9 per cent) versus repeat entertainment programming (79 per cent). This is the deepest dip in share since the pandemic.
According to Guideline, the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes have made an immediate impact on the share of ad spending. Similar to the pandemic when production halted, the industry is witnessing a ripple effect where over time there will be less content for media owners to deliver audiences, advertisers that see less impact from their advertising investments, and less capital for media companies to put back into new production, technologies, and development.
As a result, ad spending against new entertainment and repeat entertainment has rapidly shifted. Between May-June 2023 alone, new entertainment programming shifted 10 per cent points to 21 per cent of spend share. To provide some context, July and August 2020 saw new entertainment programming spend drop to 18.5 per cent and 20.7 per cent, respectively – and the average share of spend in the last 6.5 years for New vs. Repeat entertainment programming is 31 per cent and 69 per cent, respectively.
“We can expect to see a shift in favour of Upfront buying – but it may be less pronounced,” suggests Guideline’s Darrick Li, VP, North America Media Owners. “The strikes come at a time of historically lower new entertainment programming, and advertisers will want to have (more) flexibility to tap into unsold inventory and/or place their investments closer to the air date in order to mitigate risk tied to a short runway of new content. As a result, we may see media owners respond amicably, as this would give them a better understanding of the reach and target audience composition of their programming – which would ultimately be reflected in ‘Scatter Premium’ pricing.”