TV measurement company, iSpot.tv, has released the first in a series of data-driven research reports that highlight the need for more precise ad buying during live sports programming.

Every Second Counts, authored by Dave Coletti, iSpot VP of Sports Insights and Strategy, examines the differences between the industry-standard Average Commercial Minute (ACM) measurement of ads vs exact-ad impression deliveries — and analyses the opportunities surrounding the latter. The report specifically takes a focused look at live sports, and applies both ACM and exact-ad measurement methodologies in order to find differences, commonalities and where underperformance of ad delivery exists within specific sporting events.

The report leverages iSpot data to uncover several key findings about how media has been bought and sold historically, and how it might evolve in the future. Among the top sports advertisers, for instance, there’s a great divide between spot-level impressions and average audiences — especially when games are lopsided.

Key insights include: 

Sports ad delivery is growing. iSpot data found a 12 per cent increase in sports TV ad impressions since 2023, with over 900 billion ad impressions generated by sports content in the past year (and was 14 per cent of all national linear TV ad impressions).

Time for a new metric? Average Commercial Minute (ACM) Audience – average of all ad minutes that ran during a programme – has long been the transactional norm, as a proxy for previously unattainable spot-level impressions (SLI). But those limitations no longer exist, and big data can tell advertisers the precise audience delivery of each ad delivery.

Difference In Data. Among the NFL’s top advertisers, there’s a great divide between spot-level impressions and average audiences – especially when games are lopsided. iSpot found that six of the NFL’s top 15 advertisers saw meaningful impressions under-delivery compared to the ACM metric they likely bought on.