As network TV viewership goes down, ad revenue soars

Variety

The five major broadcast networks are expected to rake in between $9.6 billion to $10.8 billion in advertising revenue this year. That's up from all previous years. "TV ads, those 30-second sales pitches that prognosticators like to say are on the way out and about which consumers complain incessantly, are suddenly popular again – at least among the people who buy them," says Brian Steinberg. "How else to explain why big advertisers, with a dizzying array of new ways to reach customers with social media and digital video before them, keep raising the amount of money they intend to spend on primetime TV?"