News Isn't the Pillar of TV You Think it Is

Everywhere you look people are talking about how news and sports are holding up linear. And while that may remain a reason why people say they stay subscribed to pay TV in studies, from a TV ad stand point, you may be surprised.

Below is a ranking of TV genres by ad impressions delivered from Oct 1st through yesterday Nov 9th, according to iSpot.tv

The sports part is correct, football (NFL + College) are 55% of all ad impressions News? It's 9th with less than 2% of all ad reach on national linear TV. Throw in sports commentary and baseball and you're at 66% mas or menos.

News– the stuff that attempts to deliver facts so we can make educated decisions? 1.57%. Now to be fair, that doesn't include entertainment news, business news or the stuff on news networks that is anything but news.

Also to be fair, Lester Holt accounts is the 5th largest show to deliver ad reach and Muir clocks in at 9th (.025% of all TV).

Also, C-SPAN doesn't have ads, and that's the only place that isn't saddled with the burden of ratings, and can give it to you straight. But I digress.