Football, Syndicated Shows Grow TV Ad Reach In Q3 2025

The NFL and college football are long-time fixtures as some of TV’s top programs for ad impression delivery, yet both still managed to grow in Q3 2025. iSpot's forthcoming Q3 unified TV ad report highlights that the NFL managed to increase TV ad reach by 12% year-over-year in Q3, while college football grew by more than 16%.

• National TV ad spend also increased during football games: The NFL rose by 9.7% year-over-year, and college football was up 22.5%.
• News-related programs (including morning shows) nabbed nine of the top 20 spots by household TV ad impressions, with nearly all ranked higher year-over-year as well.
• Top syndicated programming also retains plenty of staying power as well – shows like Law & Order: SVU, The Big Bang Theory and NCIS increased reach year-over-year in Q3, and were three of the top seven programs on TV by ad reach.
• Friends, another syndicated series across TV, was No. 8 at 0.83% of TV ad impressions, making four of the top 10 programs non-new shows.

As the chart below points out, QSR brands – which are trying to create immediate purchase motions – were all over TV's top programming, regardless of whether they were airing live or reruns. The industry was No. 1 by ad impressions during six of the top eight programs in Q3.