Data: Daytime TV’s Growing Footprint

Daytime TV is a growing reach opportunity for advertisers, as new data from iSpot reveals.

The report from iSpot dives into daytime TV advertising from Labor Day 2022 through Memorial Day 2023, and uncovers a 1.3% year-over-year increase for household TV ad impressions during daytime. At the same time, primetime dipped nearly 3% year-over-year.

Now, primetime (across all national networks) still accounts for about 25% of TV ad impressions, so it’s not being supplanted just yet. But daytime is now 17.7% of linear impressions — up from 17.3% the year before. As audiences continue to fragment to streaming environments and on-demand programming, seeing ANY daypart showing annual growth is a positive sign for brands.

Where daytime is unique is that this has long been considered passive/”lean back” programming that’s frequently considered to be of lesser quality than what airs in primetime. The result is lower CPMs relative to the premiums attached to primetime and weekend sports.

Daytime growing year-over-year compared to declines in other dayparts tells networks that they can potentially charge more for advertising than they currently do, while also signaling to budget-conscious brands that there are cheaper reach options to be found on linear TV.

Despite airing its series finale two decades ago, Friends was still a powerhouse when it came to daytime reach. The Price Is Right has been a daytime staple for decades, and yet the show still manages to not only maintain its place of prominence, but actually grow year-over-year impressions. iSpot data showed that The Price is Right actually grew its daytime TV ad impressions for new episodes by 6% year-over-year, despite 2% fewer ad minutes.

Quiz & giveaway shows delivered a significant portion of daytime TV ad impressions in general, at 7.34% — No. 6 overall among all show genres. Those programs grew daytime ad impressions by 8.5% year-over-year. The No. 1 genre, general news & information shows, grew by 15%.

In light of the weight loss ad blitz around the U.S., it’s perhaps no surprise that industry saw increased reach during daytime. iSpot showed that weight loss brands grew daytime TV ad impressions by 35% year-over-year, with GOLO and Weight Watchers each up by over 130%. This, despite one-time industry giant Jenny Craig closing down its business earlier this year.

The gains for weight loss don’t even include ads for Ozempic and other drugs either. The brands are are not currently approved or marketed as weight loss solutions, but have appeared on TV plenty in the last year and have grown reach, with awareness clearly rising around those pharmaceuticals at the same time (all while not getting significant value from an emphasis on daytime).

Outside of weight loss, Instacart leaned on daytime as well, and grew ad impressions by 79% year-over-year during the daypart. The brand’s strategy was also extremely focused on reruns, which was not the case for every advertiser to show up in daytime. But over 93% of Instacart’s daytime impressions were during reruns, which in many cases, can provide even better CPMs in daytime (versus first-airing programs like Good Morning America’s third hour, The View or popular soap operas).