Fox Television Network, Fox News Network Highest in Commercial Clutter

               

• by Wayne Friedman, Yesterday, 1:24 PM                                           

Fox Television Network and the Fox News Channel run the most commercials time per hour among the respective broadcast and cable network categories.
With results from iSpot.tv, the Fox Television Network averaged 15 minutes and 4 minutes in the first quarter of 2015 -- virtually flat (0.16% higher) versus the fourth-quarter period and the highest of all broadcast networks. These results include local TV ad time and exclude promotional time.

Fox News Channel was at 16:52 -- the most of any cable network (and all networks overall). It was down 3% from the previous quarter. Fox News has been posting soaring viewership due to the Presidential election news/campaigns.

After Fox, CBS is the next-largest broadcast network with commercial time -- 14:23, down 0.7%. ABC is next at 13:51, up 0.05%. NBC had the biggest change, up a strong 9% to 13:46 versus the fourth quarter of 2015. CW has the lightest advertising load at 10:43, down 6.4% from the fourth quarter 2015.

Total broadcast advertising commercial time -- national and local advertising -- on networks was virtually flat in the first quarter versus the fourth quarter of 2015. The five top English-language networks inched up 0.7%, averaging 13 hours and 13 minutes, excluding any promotional time.
Although cable networks have announced efforts to cut back on advertising time, generally, they still have more commercial time than broadcast networks.

Seventeen cable networks tally total hourly average advertising time higher than 14 minutes, with four Viacom networks in the top five -- Spike (16:43), MTV (16:21), BET (16:16), and Comedy Central (16:14). Turner networks were next: TBS (15:31) and truTV (15:17).
Some of the least commercial cluttered networks, according to iSpot.tv -- ESPN (8:33), AMC (9:43), FX (11:09); Cartoon Network (11:46); National Geographic (12:28); and TNT (12:39).