Standard Media Index (SMI) March 2014 Ad Spend Report: U.S. Media Market Highlights

NEW YORK, April 21, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Standard Media Index (SMI) Ad Spend Report

SMI pools aggregated Ad Spend data from a number of agency groups. SMI's proprietary methodology captures approximately 60 percent of total agency spend, offering timely, unparalleled visibility into global macro and micro market dynamics. 

CAVEAT: With approximately 60 percent of total agency spend, SMI data does not capture 100 percent of US Ad Spend. However, it does provide strong directional data for measuring market trends, enabling clients to more quickly and accurately analyze their businesses and react to those changes.

• Total ad revenues for March, compared to last year, grew +16.5%.
• Total Television spend for Q1 2014 was up +21.2% YOY, while Digital ad revenue saw +22.9% YOY growth for the same period.  
• Both SMI Digital and Television showed strong growth in key Product Categories for Q1 2014 YOY:
  • Automotive (+42.8% Digital growth; +45.8% Television growth)
  • Pharmaceuticals (+50% Digital growth; 38.2% Television growth)
•  Q1 Broadcast TV ad revenue beat that of Cable TV YOY in the following SMI Product Categories:
  • Automotive (+25.7% cable growth; +70.3% broadcast growth)
  • Pharmaceuticals (+28.2% cable growth, +55.9% broadcast growth)
  • Travel, Tourism & Hospitality (+20.8% cable growth, +27.2% broadcast growth)
• In Q1 2014, Magazines outgrew Digital and Television in the Automotive advertiser category (+58.8% YOY).
• The Product Categories that showed the most growth for 2014 CYTD were Toys & Video Games (+61.9% YOY), Automotive (+40% YOY), and Financial Services (+30.9%).

SMI Television Market

Broadcast TV:

• Broadcast television ad spend grew +24.3% in Q1 2014 and +11.7% in March over 2013.
• Due to the NCAA tournament, CBS is the share leader among top Broadcast networks in March, despite remaining flat over the same month last year.
• ABC (+32.4%), which aired the 2014 Academy Awards, held the second highest share for the month, and helped drive Broadcast growth over March 2013. 
• Still fueled by the 2014 Winter Olympics, NBC remained the share leader of the Broadcast networks for Q1 2014, with +30.5% YOY growth.

Cable TV:

• Cable television posted +27.5% growth in March over 2013, and +20.3% YOY growth for the CYTD.
• ESPN remained the share leader among SMI top Cable networks for Q1 2014, with 8.2% share and +7.9% growth over the same period last year.
• TNT, which also airs March Madness games, grew +10.9% YOY in March.
• For Q1 2014, 18 of the top 20 SMI Cable networks showed an increase in advertising revenue, led by AMC (+63.5%) which aired the season finale of Walking Dead, BET (+55.2%), and History (+33.9%).

SMI Digital Market 

• SMI's Digital market continued to post double-digit monthly growth for March (+22.2% YOY).
• Twitter, the driver of YOY Digital growth for Q1 2014, exceeded Total Digital growth and Total Market growth in the Finance, Beauty, and Automotive product categories.

SMI Print Market

• In Newspapers, The Wall Street Journal dropped -19% YOY for Q1.  This helped drive the -14.4% decline in overall Newspaper ad revenue for Q1 2014. 
• USA Today and Los Angeles Times both showed YOY growth for the same period, with +1% and +34.8% respectively.  
• The Q1 Magazine market showed -4.5% decline for 2014 YOY. 
• Eleven Magazine titles within the top 20 showed positive YOY growth for the CYTD, including US Weekly (+17.9%), The New York Times Magazine (+41.3%), and Marie Claire (+18.9%).

SMI Radio Market

• Radio saw a slight increase for both March 2014 (+2.9% YOY) and the first Quarter of 2014 (+3.4% YOY).
• Clear Channel Media and Entertainment, the share leader among SMI's top Radio owners, saw +4.9% growth for the first Quarter.
• CBS Radio, with the second largest share, enjoyed a +6.5% YOY increase in ad spend for Q1 2014.

About SMI's Ad Spend Data

SMI's data enables Media Owners to track their growth and share against a sizable aggregated benchmark. SMI's proprietary methodology captures approximately 60 percent of total agency spend, offering timely, unparalleled visibility of global macro and micro market dynamics. SMI data is aggregated spend from agency groups in the United States. 

The SMI data access enables better and faster analytics to feed strategy, negotiations and fuel growth.

SMI Terms of Use

SMI growth figures are not a direct indication of a company's quarterly financial earnings and should not be identified as so without SMI's approval.

Purpose of the Report

This report and any data provided in connection with it is provided by SMI Media Inc (SMI) and is created from data and information from a variety of third party sources.  It contains analysis of the data by SMI and SMI's commentary (Report).  The Report is intended to assist buyers of media and media owners in the conduct of their businesses.  The Report is solely for use by media buyers authorized under a media buyer agreement with SMI and persons or entities that subscribe to the Report (User) strictly in accordance with, as the case may be, the terms of its media buyer agreement or, for other recipients, the customer terms set out in its subscriber agreement with SMI and subject to the terms and disclaimers below.  Where this report is provided to a recipient in the absence of any commercial agreement with SMI all restrictions on use, warranties and limitations of liability apply.  If the User does not agree to these terms and disclaimers, the User should not use the Report. 

Restrictions on use

The Report is made available only for use in the United States for the User's own internal business purposes or as otherwise expressly approved in writing by SMI. 

Except where a media buyer is specifically permitted under the terms of its media buyer agreement with SMI, or where another recipient of the Report is specifically permitted under its subscriber agreement with SMI, the User acknowledges and agrees that it must not (and must not allow or authorize any third party to) use, copy, store, save, transmit, reproduce, distribute, disclose, display, sell, publish, broadcast or circulate the Report or any information, material or underlying data contained in the Report to any third party.  The Report should not be regarded as providing financial product advice, does not constitute any recommendation and is not intended to influence any decision in relation to securities.  Information, data, analysis, commentary, opinion or research contained in the Report may be price sensitive and should not be disclosed or used in connection with the acquisition or disposal of securities.

Limitation of liability and warranties

The Report may contain errors or omissions and is provided on an 'as is' basis.  As the data and information obtained from third parties, SMI does not warrant, guarantee, or make any representation regarding the use or the results of the use of the Report including, but not limited to, the correctness, accuracy, reliability, or currency of the Report.    The Report does not contain all advertising and media buying expenditure in the United States.  SMI does not warrant, guarantee or make any representation regarding the completeness of advertising expenditure referred to in the Report.  Except for liability that cannot by law be excluded, SMI accepts no responsibility for and will not be liable, whether in contract, tort (including negligence) or otherwise, for any loss, liability, cost or expense including any indirect or consequential expenses, losses, damages or costs, loss of profit and lost revenue arising directly or indirectly as a result of the use of or reliance on the Report.  To the maximum extent permitted by law, SMI's total liability to the User for all losses, damages and causes of action (in contract, tort, negligence or otherwise) will be limited in aggregate to, in the case of other recipients, an amount equal to the fees paid by the recipient for the Report in the calendar year in which the liability arose. 

Intellectual property rights

SMI reserves all rights.  SMI warrants that, to the best of its knowledge as at the date of publication, the Report does not infringe the intellectual property rights of any third party.  Copyright in the Report is owned by SMI.

PRESS CONTACT: Leili-Jones, Jessee, SMI Media, Inc., [email protected], 646-374-3996

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130613/NY31447LOGO

SOURCE Standard Media Index