MediaRadar is forecasting a potential loss in ad spending of $1 billion in the U.S. from the pause of professional sports, including the National Hockey League (NHL), National Basketball League (NBA) and Major League Baseball (MLB).<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile there\u2019s much still in the air as far as the total impact COVID-19 will have on American life, one thing is certain, we won’t be seeing professional sports any time soon,\u201d said Todd Krizelman, co-founder and CEO of MediaRadar. \u201cThe NBA and NHL both put their seasons on pause, and the MLB has delayed opening day. As far as resuming, the most recent reports from all three leagues suggest that June would be the earliest. This leaves a window of time where we\u2019d normally be seeing sports that broadcasters now have to fill. We analyzed the ad spend during broadcasts of these games, over the last few years, to understand the impact of COVID-19 on the leagues\u2019 ad spend in 2020.\u201d<\/p>\n
MediaRadar\u2019s analysis revealed that broadcasts of the NBA, MLB and NHL combined accounted for over $1 billion in advertising spend, from March of 2019 through May of 2019 (the time period we are likely to be without sports). NBA broadcasts generated $839 million in ad revenue, the NHL games brought in over $120 million and the MLB brought in over $60 million. \u201cThe reason that MLB broadcasts are notably lower in ad revenue is because their games are early regular-season games, compared to the playoff games of the other two sports,\u201d added Krizelman.<\/p>\n
The study found that over 900 companies advertised during TV broadcasts of professional sports (NHL, MLB and NBA) between March 2019 and May of 2019. The MLB saw the most advertisers and the most growth in the number of brands advertising during games, with an 18 percent increase since 2017, according to the report.<\/p>\n
The top five advertisers for all three sports by spend are AT&T, Anheuser-Busch, Hyundai, Pepsi and GEICO. Collectively, those top five advertisers spent $147 million on TV ads during game broadcasts.<\/p>\n
Across all three sports in 2019, six industries account for nearly 80 percent of the total ad spend. Of them, tech was the largest buyer of advertising dollars. In particular, cell phone providers, like AT&T and Verizon, according to the report. Tech was also the largest advertiser in 2017. \u201cAutomotive, however, slid from second to fourth place, in terms of the largest advertisers, as they simply held investment steady while others boosted theirs,\u201d concluded Krizelman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MediaRadar is forecasting a potential loss in ad spending of $1 billion in the U.S. from the pause of professional sports, including the National Hockey League (NHL), National Basketball League (NBA) and Major League Baseball (MLB).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":350,"featured_media":9871,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75,69],"tags":[2391,1971,1308,2392],"class_list":["post-9870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-analysis","category-top-stories","tag-mediaradar","tag-mlb","tag-nba","tag-nhl"],"yoast_head":"\n