TV ad spending will continue its decline this year, according to eMarketer’s latest US advertising forecast.
With cord-cutting accelerating and over-the-top (OTT) viewing on the rise, outlays on TV ads will slip 0.5% in 2018 to $69.87 billion. As a result, TV’s share of total US media ad expenditures will drop from 33.9% in 2017 to 31.6% this year.
TV ad spending will see a slight uptick in 2020 (due to the US presidential election and Summer Olympics in Tokyo), but it will sink back to negative territory in the following years and fall to less than a quarter of total ad spend by 2022.
“The shift of audiences to OTT viewing is changing the climate of the TV ad market,” said eMarketer senior forecasting director Monica Peart. “As ratings for TV programming continue to decline, advertiser spending will also continue to see declines, especially in years that do not boast major events such as presidential elections and Olympic games.”