When local TV stations go all out to cover weather events like Hurricane Sandy, the first thing to go are commercial breaks. While this allows stations to keep their news teams on-air as long as possible, it also means a possible loss in revenue both for the stations and for the ad agencies.
Advertising Age is reporting Hurricane Sandy took an already cloudy financial forecast for the ad industry and made it downright stormy,
In a new report that cites the impact of the hurricane and other economic variables, media-research firm Pivotal Research Group lowered its U.S. ad forecast to a 0.5% decline in the third quarter, a 1.4% decline in the fourth quarter and zero growth for the full year.
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According to Advertising Age, Brian Weiser, a senior research analyst at Pivotal, “estimated Sandy will cost the advertising industry about $500 million in lost revenue, due to interruptions in local TV and radio programming and also factoring in decision-making by media buyers in the wake of the storm.”