NFL Draft Coverage: Rising Viewers, Brand Interest

• by Wayne Friedman , 7 hours ago

Building on its growing NFL game viewership, the three-day coverage of the NFL Draft -- which started last night (April 23) -- keeps growing, now well past 12 million viewership levels on the opening day over the past two years.

Advertising revenue for the NFL draft programming is also climbing.

Analysts expect at least 15% or more national TV advertising revenues on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, NFL Network this year -- topping the $164.1 million pulled in a year ago, according to estimates from iSpot.

In 2025, national TV ad revenues were up 23% from $133.5 million the year before.

Looking at ad revenues by network, last year ABC pulled in $77.6 million in ad revenue from the three-day run, with ESPN at $41.8 million, NFL Network at $30.6 million and ESPN2 at $14.0 million.

Major advertisers included Goodyear, Nationwide Insurance, NFL, Courtyard, and Dr Pepper.

This year more than half the advertisers in 53 categories have raised media budgets from a year ago, according to a report in Sports Business Journal. Walt Disney’s ABC/ESPN has around 135 total sponsorships from 30 advertisers.

Representatives of ABC/ESPN didn’t respond to Television News Daily by press time.

A total of 14 hours will air for the NFL draft - in primetime and daytime -- Thursday (primetime), Friday (primetime) and Saturday (daytime).

Last year first round primetime coverage of the NFL draft on Thursday -- on ESPN, ABC, and NFL Network -- averaged a Nielsen-measured 13.9 million. This was up from 12.1 million in 2024.

By way of comparison, the NFL 2025-2026 regular season live games across all networks and platforms was 18.7 million.

Looking at total viewership -- all daypart from all four networks (ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, NFL Network) -- viewership averaged 7.5 million viewers -- 27% more than 2024.

 

Apple Focuses On 'Hardware': Thinking Big Screens?

• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, April 22, 2026

Will John Ternus, the incoming CEO of Apple, take a swing at another piece of major consumer hardware once he takes full control of the big tech giant?

With Apple’s longtime chief executive Tim Cook leaving after 15 years, Apple needs to work on its next act.

Ternus started at Apple in 2001 and was named vice president of hardware engineering in 2013.

For Apple, many believe the obvious will be in building up more artificial intelligence (AI) -- especially "generative AI."

Investors remain nervous that Apple is somewhat behind other technology and media-centric companies such as Google, Microsoft and Meta in this area. Apple has been cautious about taking a privacy-first approach to AI, which has slowed things.

Apple Intelligence is already the foundational AI system integrated into the Apple core operating systems on all devices. This comes with future versions of Siri and also partners with Google for Gemini for more advanced AI tasks.

Apple is already looking at the next step -- not just with fully enabled AI in iPhones, but other physical products where AI will show off its use.

There may be challenges ahead with Apple's attempts at new devices. Its Apple Vision Pro, priced at a hefty $3,499, is out of reach for many consumers. The company is also working on a cheaper headset that is tentatively set to launch this year, called Vision Air.

But should Apple consider something a bit more accessible -- like the next iteration of a smart TV device? Amazon and Roku are already in the game, with the TV set-named brands and/or partnerships, which helps those companies feed into their respective advertising-selling platforms.

This is not Apple’s game at the moment. For example, its Apple TV streaming platform is the lone major premium streaming service that does not have an advertising option.

But imagine if Apple were to come up with the first modestly priced AI-powered smart TV set -- eliminating the need for a set-top streaming box. Apple has been selling those for quite some time.

Some may believe a TV set is now not very important, as mobile devices, laptop screens and iPads could be all that is needed for the modern consumer.

For many years, in addition to the iPhone, Apple's main efforts have been centered around “services” -- Apple Music, Apple Arcade, and Apple TV+ (now Apple TV) -- as well as payment services such as Apple Pay and Apple Card.

The future focus is on Apple Intelligence, which is intended to power a wide range of features, from writing and editing to image generation and a sharper focus with context-aware Siri.
This is especially true for new types of devices that Apple will launch in the coming years.

So does it make sense that the company did not look to promote services, software, operations, or marketing-centric Apple senior executives?

Going with Ternus as the new CEO signals to analysts that the company is going back “product-first, engineering-led leadership” style.

Think of what Apple products are needed. Apple is going hard in hardware.

 

Is It Time For A Multimodal Media Rep?

• by Joe Mandese , Yesterday

One of the greatest epiphanies for the multimodal nature of modern ad-supported media hit me a few years ago when Brian Wieser was still at GroupM -- and GroupM was still called GroupM -- and he and Kate Scott-Dawkins posted one of their "This Week, Next Week" podcasts (embedded below) discussing how much the "line items" they used in their bottoms-up approach to calculating the advertising marketplace had become fungible. Specifically, they discussed how a medium known for one modality -- say video -- could also be categorized as another, say audio.

The example they gave was YouTube, which we all know is the biggest video platform in the world, but according to Wieser, it had also become the biggest audio platform in the world. At least in terms of audio licensing, if not in advertising sales.

I was thinking about that when Google announced an advertising sales representation agreement Wednesday making SiriusXM Media the exclusive audio advertising rep for YouTube.

So I asked SiriusXM Media's press contacts if they could put some dimensions around the scale of the deal from an ad sales point-of-view. They declined.

And since this trade reporter's nature abhors a vacuum, I asked "someone" at Google -- Gemini AI -- to help me guesstimate it, based on the best publicly available data from its publicly-traded parent, as well as other public industry sources.

"While YouTube is the giant of video, it is a 'challenger' in the pure audio space compared to Spotify or iHeartRadio," Gemini replied, noting that much of YouTube audio content is actually "background listening," albeit "massive."

Utilizing Google's full-year 2025 reported data for YouTube gross advertising revenue ($40.4 billion) and applying industry audio share "norms" from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and other public sources, Gemini estimates audio's share of total YouTube advertising buys is about 3.3%, or about $1.4 billion for that year.

While that's not exactly chopped liver, it is a marginal share of the $40 billion-plus audio advertising marketplace.

So it makes sense that Google would seek to outsource it to a dedicated audio sales organization like SiriusXM Media, which also reps its own audio media inventory -- including the ad-supported Pandora streaming service, as well as an expansive podcast network -- and other third-party audio inventory from companies like SoundCloud and AudioMack.

What happens to an ad and the company in the minds of the consumer when frequency outdoes itself?

Philip Jay LeNoble, Ph.D.

 

Commentary

Omnicom Launches Frequency Probe, Finds 'Negative Reach'

• by Joe Mandese , April 20, 2026

As part of a longer-term research project to understand what constitutes optimum ad frequency in today's multimedia, multimodal world, Omnicom's OM Intelligence unit this morning published the first in a series of reports finding that excessive frequency actually produces "negative reach," a phenomenon that happens "when a consumer has seen your ad so many times that it become egregious, beginning to create negative brand recognition."

The report, "Why Frequency Matters," also finds that there no longer are industry rules of thumb for determining when ad frequency generates positive or negative reach, and that it all comes down to the nature of the campaign, the consumer and the media environment, as well as the creative rotation.

Or, as Chief Intelligence Officer Joanna O'Connell puts it, "it depends."

In a preview of the report's findings, O'Connell said the initial study combined a proprietary consumer research study fielded by OM Intelligence in August 2025, as well as some quantitative research utilizing VideoAmp's ACR data, and programmatic bid stream data from The Trade Desk.

The main initial takeaway is that "negative reach" can occur among some viewers with just two ad exposures of the same ad, but that it occurs among nearly two-thirds of viewers when it approaches frequencies of 4+.

Not surprisingly, the study also found that consumers perceive "negative reach" levels most when seeing excessive ad frequency on streaming platforms, as well as social media platforms -- but interestingly have much more positive reach perceptions when seeing ad frequencies on linear TV, websites and retail sites (see data below).

 Advertising local brands is important to keep the reach of a business's brand in the top of the consumer's mind for who they are and what they sell. But today is all about a local company or brand being trusted and its relevance to the consumer and the community. Sure...capturing the largest consumer group that best matches and reaches the largest business's consumer base with its service or product line(s) is important. But today consumer choice depends on trusting a local business's message in terms of what value it may provide to the consumer's personal, or local businesses' needs is most important. With the advent of AI....remember, "artificial intelligence"...is just that! It's not just what a business is all about and what it sells...its where it fits in the consumer's minds in term of trust. Philip Jay LeNoble, Ph.D.

In a fragmented landscape defined by choice, attention can get you seen, but trust is earned through relevance and consistency. Media planners must prioritize where audiences seek credibility, not just where impressions are easiest to buy. The brands that understand this won’t just reach their audiences; they’ll be the ones those audiences choose.

 

Commentary

Media Fragmentation Is Forcing Marketers to Follow Trust, Not Reach

• by Patrick Fenton , Yesterday

Bookmarks? Favorites? What are those?! Navigating the attention economy is more challenging than ever, and it’s only getting worse.

Research shows that digital media consumption has reached saturation point, with B2B buyers curating their own information ecosystems rather than relying on legacy publishers. Niche platforms, community forums, user-generated content, and AI-powered discovery tools are increasingly the starting point for research.

For media planners, this creates both complexity and opportunity. While reach is more dispersed, attention is deeper and less cluttered. Brands that diversify their channel mix can earn trust through relevance and utility, rather than relying solely on brand recognition. But how can they do this effectively?

Turning complexity into opportunity

Scale without trust is no longer an effective media strategy. Get back to what you can believe in: data and well-sourced editorial.

Let’s start with data. Even though there are more destinations, with people consuming media from more content creators, there’s luckily an equal growth in the volume of information available. Initial research should start here, as it paints a picture of who your audience is. Remember, even “decision makers” (whatever those are) are real people, too! This is a solid foundation to understand what sets your target audience apart, and what platforms they prefer for research purposes.

Once you’ve identified the watering holes where they converse, the “lean-back” environments they’re engaged in, and the high-quality publishing they prefer, it’s not enough to just put your ads there. Tailoring the way you communicate, the types of programs you partner on, and how you stand out are vital. Having campaign strategy and creative in lockstep with media will power this process.

Implementing the right data source depends on what type of campaign you’re running (awareness, ABM, demand, or brand gen) but is at least more straightforward than it used to be. By marrying data, platform, and inventory, you’re well on your way back to the basics of reach and frequency and providing the trigger needed for impactful response.

Now, for those all-important premium publisher and content alignments – where to start?! A lot of research needs to be done, outside of standard reach and composition figures against your target audience -- even more so in today’s hyper-political and socially charged landscape. What stances are being made, and does that align with your brand?

The question of budget then comes into play. With consumption so fragmented, and decision-making units so large, do you have enough to make an impactful investment with enough publishers or platforms? Often the answer is no, but an audience first approach can save the day. With this approach you can still cherry-pick the type of content you’re adjacent to, really home in on frequency, and cover all media types you have available creative for, efficiently.

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Commentary

Shareholder Vote Today Is Moment Of Truth For WBD, Paramount

• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, 9 hours ago

How long does a news story remain newsworthy? The answer is: Until it ends.

That possibility is what the TV Blog faces today as Warner Bros. Discovery convenes a special shareholders meeting to tally up shareholder votes for or against WBD’s merger with Paramount Skydance.

If the voters vote yes, then the story of Paramount’s long pursuit of WBD comes to an end. Or does it?

This day has been long in coming. It follows months of twists and turns that turned this merger -- actually a takeover of WBD by Paramount -- into the biggest story in television during its duration.

All told, the TV Blog covered the story from its lead-up until today in 39 TV Blogs. They included blogs on topics large and small -- including David Ellison’s relentless pursuit of Paramount and WBD and the role President Trump played in all of it.

This tally actually goes back to a year-end blog in December 2023 when rumors first surfaced that Paramount Global and WBD were in talks about a merger -- two years before David Ellison and Skydance would swoop in to buy Paramount in summer 2025.

Those talks apparently went nowhere, and the story of Ellison’s determination to buy a big TV company veered in another direction as Skydance set its sights on Paramount Global.

In June 2024, a TV Blog reported that a proposed deal fell through. But in a sudden reversal, the companies announced a month later that they had agreed on a deal, which would not close until August 2025.

Before that could happen, the TV Blog wrote again and again about the fallout at CBS News that preceded the deal’s closing.

All through spring 2025, top CBS News executives resigned, “Evening News” anchors criticized Paramount on the air, and “60 Minutes” fought a two-front war against a lawsuit brought by President Trump and Paramount brass who wanted the show to take it easy on Trump so that he would bless the merger with Skydance.

Finally, Trump’s FCC approved the deal. And little more than a month later, the new Paramount Skydance made its first bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, setting off a whole new chapter in the drama.

If the WBD-Skydance drama started in September 2025, then why count all the TV Blogs that came before then?

Because it was all part of the same continuing story. Among other things, David Ellison was at the center of all of it. So was President Trump. 

So was CBS News, as Ellison installed an outsider to take over the news division -- the internet firebrand, Bari Weiss.

Fear of Trump made headlines. Weiss made headlines. Ellison made headlines. And so did the saga of Ellison’s bids and WBD’s dismissal of them.

Then a juicy new storyline arose when Netflix made a counteroffer for WBD in December 2025 and WBD announced that it had accepted it over Paramount’s bid.

“WBD To Paramount: Get Lost!” said a headline on a TV Blog on December 18. “WBD To Ellisons: Go Away Already,” said another one on January 8, 2026.

But over the next few weeks, Ellison and Paramount Skydance sweetened its offers and WBD had no choice but to capitulate and accept the final offer last month, and Netflix withdrew.

Now, the stage is set for today’s WBD shareholder vote. If the vote goes in favor of the deal, then this portion of the saga will be over.

But what’s next? The future is pregnant with possibilities. Will Trump stand in the way of this new deal too?

In this context, will CNN be pressured by Ellison and company to take it easy on Trump, so the deal can close?

Will Bari Weiss be handed the reins of CNN too?

Upon reflection, perhaps this story still has legs. Stay tuned

 The WRAP

NBCU and Versant Represented 13% of February TV Viewership, According to Delayed Nielsen Numbers

PROAVAILABLE TO WRAPPRO MEMBERS

It was the company’s best month since the Paris Olympics in 2024

Kayla Cobb

April 14, 2026 @ 5:00 AM

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Chloe Kim of Team United States of America participates in Snowboard Halfpipe Training on day three of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

Unsurprisingly, Super Bowl LX and the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics were very good for NBCUniversal and Versant. Viewership across the two companies made up 13.1% of all TV viewing during the month of February, according to Nielsen’s Media Distributor Gauge report, which was released this past Tuesday.

The Media Distributor Gauge measures total TV viewership by media company. Ten percent of that viewership belonged to NBCUniversal with the remaining 3.3% coming from the corporation’s cable-focused spinoff company, Versant. NBCU-Versant saw a 48% increase in total TV viewership compared to January. The companies also saw their best TV share since the Paris Olympics in August of 2024, a month during which NBCU accounted for 13.4% of all TV viewership.

As per usual, the Super Bowl accounted for the largest TV audience during the month of February, bringing in over 125 million viewers. The NFL’s big game then provided a bump for NBC’s Olympics viewership, which increased viewership for NBC affiliate stations by 60% throughout the month in question.

Nielsen’s Media Distributor Gauge Report for February (Photo Credit: Nielsen)

On the streaming side, Peacock saw a 64% increase in February viewing and recorded its highest share of television to date when it comes to The Gauge, accounting for a 3% share of TV viewing. Peacock’s simulcast of the Super Bowl accounted for 20% of the game’s audience and helped make Feb. 8 the platform’s most-watched day of all time. Peacock’s viewers were also notably younger as 73% of its Super Bowl audience were 50 years old or younger compared to 54% of NBC’s audience. The streamer also saw a Big Game boost for its new original series “The ‘Burbs,” which was the most-watched episode of the month across all original titles.

Finally, on the cable side, USA Network saw a 234% increase in February viewerships thanks to the Olympics, and MS NOW saw a 7% increase. Cable news viewership overall was up 4.4% during the month in question.

As for the rest of the Media Distributor Gauge report, YouTube came in second place during the month of February, accounting for 12.7%. It was followed by The Walt Disney Company (9.9%), Netflix (8.4%) and Paramount (7%).