Digital Video Forecast To See Big Gains In TV Upfront

Despite reports that digital video will take a back seat to traditional TV this upfront, eMarketer estimates digital video will still benefit in a major way.

The research company projects upfront digital video ad spending -- for the broadcast year running September to August -- will rise 25.4% to $3.64 billion for the 2018-2019 season.

Upfront advertising digital video revenues are forecast to continue to climb over the next year -- adding another 21%, to hit 4.39 billion.

Traditional TV spending -- broadcast, cable, and syndication -- is projected to rise 3% to $20.33 billion this season.  A number of senior-level traditional TV networks and some analysts have also predicted slightly higher overall upfront volume.

Still, eMarketer says total TV ad spending for 2018 will drop 0.5% to $69.87 billion -- with another 1% decline in 2019.

In 2018, the total universe of U.S. TV viewers -- pay TV and over-the-air viewers -- will also decline slightly, to 0.2%, with 297.6 million people.

In addition, this year, there will be 2.1% fewer pay TV adult viewers than in 2017 -- 192 million. The estimates for adult viewers exclude pure-play online video services, such as Hulu, Netflix and YouTube.

That means cord-cutters will grow 22% this year, per eMarketer. There will also be 228.8 million people in the U.S. who will watch digital video -- up 2.7% from last year.

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1 comment about "Digital Video Forecast To See Big Gains In TV Upfront".
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  1. Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, April 27, 2018 at 11:41 a.m.

    Wayne,  in my humble opinion, it's a little misleading to mix local---or "spot" ---TV ad spending estimates with upfront primetime national media buys. Our latest prognosis for national network, cable and syndication ad spending is that it will increase while local TV, not counting "spot cable", will soften somewhat. As for the so-called "digital upfront", it's not very clear what this refers to. Is it sponsored telecasts on the networks' websites? Is it some new form of "perishable" time on other digital platforms that must be bought in advance or one risks not being able to buy it later? Is it the same as "primetime" on the broadcast TV networks and major cable channels?

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