Advertisers trust TV amidst digital ad placement scandals
Advertisers are still putting their faith in television despite a broad consumer move towards online viewing on platforms such as Facebook, Netflix and YouTube. The industry is looking to spend as much as $9bn this year on television advertising, believing that the reliability and wide delivery of television adverts keep the medium relevant in the digital age. This confidence is compounded by the recent controversies with Facebook and YouTube’s ad placement. Television accounted for 42% of total ad spend last year, while digital made up 31%, according to data from GroupM.
TV ratings are collapsing. Media stocks are falling. Cord cutting is accelerating.

There has been no shortage of bad headlines for television networks over the last few months, as investors grow concerned over dropping viewership and as people increasingly find new ways to entertain themselves.

Yet while audience attention has drifted toward platforms like Netflix, Facebook and YouTube, there is one group of stubborn holdouts who are not ready to give up on broadcast television: advertisers.

This week, as ad buyers cram into New York institutions like Radio City Music Hall and Carnegie Hall to watch the broadcast networks talk up a new TV season, they will again prepare to spend as much as $9 billion to be a part of it. Though the market may be cooling this year, a significant drop is not expected.

A reasonable person might ask how, in 2017, is that remotely possible?

“It will continue to move forward this way as long as it works,” said Lyle Schwartz, the president of investment for North America at GroupM, the ad buying arm of the advertising conglomerate WPP.