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Ad spending rises by 18 percent in May on the top five networks

June 21, 2016

   

Alcoholic beverage companies upped spending on Spanish-language TV sharply in May.

By the editors of Media Life

The English-language broadcast upfront is off to a promising start, with most of the networks seeing double-digit percentage gains in CPMs so far.

Things could be even rosier for the Spanish-language networks.

The top five networks had a strong May coming off a good first quarter, and ad spending gains have been outpacing those for the top five English-language networks throughout that period, according to the latest ad spending data from Standard Media Index, which tracks ad spending on the part of 70 percent of U.S. agencies.

During May, spending on Univision, Telemundo, UniMas, Galavision and ESPN Deportes was up 18 percent over the same month last year, compared to a 3 percent decline for the English-language top five of ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and ESPN.

“We have seen the leading Hispanic broadcasters deliver solid ratings performance in the past several months and this is definitely helping with ad sales results,” James Fennessy, chief executive officer at SMI, tells Media Life.

May’s Spanish-language spending was driven partly by big upticks in spending in three major categories: alcoholic beverages, up 64 percent over last year; fast food restaurants, up 39 percent; and telecommunications, up 37 percent.

“The Hispanic networks seem to be hanging onto audiences nicely and have been working hard to convince agencies and marketers that they have an increasingly affluent and loyal audience and should be getting an increased share of brand advertising,” Fennessy says.

UniMas is having an even better June, airing the highly rated Copa America Centenario, which has drawn record ratings and is attracting big ad dollars.

First-quarter spending was also strong for the five biggest Spanish-language networks, up 8 percent over last year, compared to a 5 percent gain for the English-language networks.

Still, most buyers prioritize securing their clients’ time on the Big Five. The Spanish-language upfront usually doesn’t break until the English-language is mostly done.

When it does, it will be interesting to see if there’s still strong interest from those categories and whether Telemundo benefits from its recent ratings surge ahead of rival Univision in the 10 p.m. hour.