The TV industry met numerous tests in 2023 – from continued audience fragmentation, to entertainment work stoppages and fewer premium events (like the Olympics and Men’s World Cup) relative to 2022. Still, ad reach was resilient this past year as networks and advertisers alike adjusted on the fly to the shifting landscape.
iSpot found that household TV ad impressions were up slightly – 1.8% – year-over-year in 2023, some of which is attributable to networks airing more ads for more minutes. The volume of ads across TV also helped fuel an incredible number of unique creatives in 2023; with nearly 650K ads, from 35.2K advertisers.
A growing Spanish-speaking population in the U.S. impacted TV advertising as well. Spanish-language TV ad impressions grew by 19% YoY, and 27% more brands aired Spanish-language ads. Networks like Univision, Telemundo and UniMas all saw ad impressions growth by 18% or more vs. 2022, too.
Meanwhile, with less scripted programming in 2023 due to entertainment work stoppages, the assumption was that reality TV would reap the benefits. Yet, reality TV actually delivered 5.9% fewer TV ad impressions YoY. Instead, it was sports (+6.9% more ad impressions) and news (+4.2%) that really filled the void for both networks and advertisers in 2023.
That’s just scratching the surface of what happened on TV in 2023, however. Check out iSpot’s 2023 TV Transparency Report for the full scoop on the industry’s top trends and takeaways as this year’s plans take shape.