COMMENTARY

Half Of U.S. Linear Households Saw Just 8% Of TV Ads In 1H

• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, August 11, 2023

Underscoring the growing difficulty of reaching much of the U.S. population with linear TV alone, a new study finds that the half of TV viewers who consume the most linear TV saw 92% of TV ad impressions in first-half 2023, while the other half saw just 8% of impressions. 

That’s according to Samba TV’s latest State of Viewership report, which details trends in linear and OTT television viewing based on an analysis of first-party data from millions of smart TVs and a nationwide survey of 2,506 U.S adults by HarrisX fielded between March 23 to 27. Survey results were weighted for age by gender, region, race/ethnicity and income where necessary to reflect U.S. census data. 

While the lower 50% of linear viewers saw just 14 linear TV ads per day, on average, the top 50% of linear viewers were "bombarded” with more than 150 ads per day, according to the analysis — which also found 62% of viewers saying that it takes only two to five repeated viewings of the same ad in a month-long period to worsen their perception of a brand. 

At about 58 million, linear TV’s daily reach actually rose a bit compared to 1H 2021 (53 million) and H2 2022 (54 million).