War Costs TV Networks $77 Million in 1st Week
Tue April 8, 2003 04:56 PM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Television networks lost $77 million in advertising revenue in the first week of the U.S.-led war on Iraq, research firm CMR said on Tuesday.
The major broadcast networks -- ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox, lost $22.4 million in commercial revenue on March 20, which was the first full day of military action. Cable news channels lost $3.6 million that day, when many networks preempted their regular programming for war coverage, media research firm CMR said.
For the week ended March 25, network television saw $53.6 million in advertising dollars dwindle away while the cable news channels, which do not charge advertisers as much because they have a smaller viewing audience, lost $17.6 million.
CMR said it plans to provide weekly updates on the total amount networks are losing every week.
There was no hard data for online advertising but anecdotal evidence pointed to some companies pulling ads from the Internet when the war began, said Allie Savarino, senior vice president for global marketing at online advertising firm Unicast.
"Initially, in the first couple of days we saw advertisers saying we need to temporarily hold our campaigns," she said. "By the following Monday, almost everything had resumed."
Companies in the pharmaceutical and financial industries were more wary of putting their ads back online. Those industries are generally more conservative about advertising, Savarino said.
Some news Web sites pulled advertising from their home pages that featured war coverage, she added.
Tue April 8, 2003 04:56 PM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Television networks lost $77 million in advertising revenue in the first week of the U.S.-led war on Iraq, research firm CMR said on Tuesday.
The major broadcast networks -- ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox, lost $22.4 million in commercial revenue on March 20, which was the first full day of military action. Cable news channels lost $3.6 million that day, when many networks preempted their regular programming for war coverage, media research firm CMR said.
For the week ended March 25, network television saw $53.6 million in advertising dollars dwindle away while the cable news channels, which do not charge advertisers as much because they have a smaller viewing audience, lost $17.6 million.
CMR said it plans to provide weekly updates on the total amount networks are losing every week.
There was no hard data for online advertising but anecdotal evidence pointed to some companies pulling ads from the Internet when the war began, said Allie Savarino, senior vice president for global marketing at online advertising firm Unicast.
"Initially, in the first couple of days we saw advertisers saying we need to temporarily hold our campaigns," she said. "By the following Monday, almost everything had resumed."
Companies in the pharmaceutical and financial industries were more wary of putting their ads back online. Those industries are generally more conservative about advertising, Savarino said.
Some news Web sites pulled advertising from their home pages that featured war coverage, she added.
