Media Facts
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Disadvantages
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Total TV/Video Advertising Disadvantages
- Is expensive to produce and to buy
- Prime placement may not be available due to limited avails within the most popular programs
- May be less demographically selective as other media forms, although cable TV options may be more focused
- Is typically cluttered, so spots may be placed deep within a string of commercials. Viewers may head to the fridge during long commercial breaks, or switch channels. Messaging may get lost in the shuffle, long-term recall may be lost.
- May be fast-forwarded if program is recorded for later viewing
- Increased use of social media in conjunction with TV-viewing may diminish or eliminate any attention to advertising messages aired
- Over 70% of adults feel that broadcast TV, cable/satellite TV has too many ads
(Source: Nielsen 2023 Consumer Survey Report)
- More than 40% of consumers find videos on social media to be more diverse than TV shows and movies.
- 60% of Gen Z's agree.
- 50% of Black, Hispanic and LatinX, and LGBTQIA+ consumers agree.
(Source: Deloitte, Digital media trends, 18th edition, March 2024)
Network TV Disadvantages
- Ratings have eroded considerable with the growth of cable viewing and increased competition from various digital media
- Viewer loyalty has declined due to excessive stunting, schedule changes and program preemptions
- Audiences are increasingly older, more downscale as younger consumers move to other platforms
- Primetime is no longer the ultimate vehicle to reach mass audiences. Between 20-25% of the population is not reached weekly by combined ABC/CBS/NBC/Fox prime
- Ad exposure and impact have declined based on increased clutter, dial switching and ad skipping via DVRs
- No capacity to target specific areas within a given market
- Expensive – Highest CPM of any form of TV
- High commercial production costs
- While Nielsen's TV are superior to other media research, challenges remain re sample balancing, editing rules and measurement of new forms of transmission
Local Spot TV Disadvantages
- Stations don't guarantee spot placement unless fixed-position premium is paid; buys may be preempted for higher rate schedules
- Programming varies throughout the day, so zeroing-in on a specific target audience group can be a challenge on local TV
- Many stations get help from their networks to hype Nielsen "sweep" period ratings
- CPMs are usually comparable to broadcast TV networks/syndication for the same dayparts, but are not formally guaranteed. While bonus spots or makegoods may be given, their timing and program typing may not be appropriate.
- Nielsen audience samples for local markets are very basic in comparison to network research – small samples, slow reporting, minimal ethnic data
- Targeting selective consumer demographics is problem with only broad sex/age ratings data available
- For multi-market advertisers, negotiating and buying on a market-by-market basis is tedious and difficult
- Post-buy accounting can be very difficult
Syndicated TV Disadvantages
- Limited availability, not distributed across all dayparts
- Upscale demographics, males are difficult to target
- Limited program range versus broadcast networks, cable
- Sports programming, fare aimed at kids is scarce to non-existent
- Genres such as talk, court shows, sitcoms oversaturated
Ad-Supported Cable TV Disadvantages
- Full-market coverage is only available in I+ markets; advertisers must supplement with ADS (satellite/telcos) to achieve full-market saturation
- Bundling – or the packaging of multiple channels by cable access providers – forces consumers to pay for channels they don't watch
- Due to rising costs of subscriptions and increasing availability of other video options, more and more consumer are "pulling the plug" on cable services
- Approximately 13.6% of U.S. households only have access to broadcast TV, not cable
- While excellent programming is abundant, cable also fills a lot of air-time with reruns
- The large – and growing – number of cable channels creates a high degree of audience fragmentation, resulting in lower program ratings in general
- Number of channels makes buying difficult, placing commercials, tracking makegoods, doing post-analysis is time cumbersome and time consuming
- Clutter is a major issue on some channels, leading to even more avoidance than on broadcast TV
- Commercials give cable a downscale image
- Glut of infomercials aired in late night and early morning
- Poorly produced "local" spots may surround your well-executed spot
- Nielsen data on smaller cable channels, especially digital channels, is limited due to sample size issues
- Digital services such as Netflix pose a threat to cable and broadcast as the offer on-demand viewing, original content
- Major Pay TV providers lost an estimated 2,215,000 subscribers in Q1 of 2023 (Source: Leichtman Research Group, Q1 2023)