How much promotional time do ABC, CBS and NBC have in primetime? A fascinating analysis from the Promax Station Summit shows how many promos they have and how they divide the time between all their priorities.
How much promotional time do ABC, CBS and NBC have in primetime? And what are they promoting?
At the Promax Station Summit last week in Las Vegas, TV stations’ creative services and marketing execs all came together to see the best promos from around the country.
The focus is mostly on creative.
One session however, Unlocking Network News, led by frequent Promax contributor and presenter, Lee Hunt, took a more analytical approach.
Hunt presented a year-long analysis from June 2021 to May 2022 that tracked the promotional time of 33 linear channels, including CBS, ABC and NBC.
The analysis covers only one daypart: primetime. And that’s because it’s the most valuable real estate a network has and where they can reach the most eyeballs, according to Hunt.
So for a year, from 8 to 11 p.m. ET, the data captured all promotional messages including internal, competitive, local and bartered cross-channel promotion. The data comes from CMOintelligence. CMOi tracks and analyzes the on-air marketing of linear and streaming brands.
“The takeaway here is that CBS, ABC and NBC use an average of eight to 11 promos per hour to speak to their audience,” Hunt says. “And they have to decide which of their priorities are going to get a slot.”
The priorities include the network morning and evening news, entertainment programing, streaming offerings, podcasts, news specials and other owned networks.
Local TV marketing execs in attendance probably wondered what they would do with that much promo time. Some stations have no budget for outside media.
And the local execs could sympathize with the networks in terms of growing priorities. TV stations have morning, afternoon, evening and late newscasts. They have entertainment programs to promote, apps, streaming options and podcasts, too.
Hunt’s presentation deftly weaved between charts and graphs and relevant video examples from the networks to keep the audience engaged and attentive.
Hunt is “happy to share the PDF of the presentation and the videos with anyone who asks.” You can email him at [email protected].
Here are some promo examples from ABC, CBS and NBC that showcase the different priorities they promote.
ABC, Good Morning America
CBS Mornings
NBC, Today
ABC World News Tonight
CBS Evening News
NBC Nightly News
ABC, 20/20
CBS, 48 Hours
NBC, Dateline
ABC News, Cross-Platform
True Crime Montage
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