Rachel Maddow may be cable TV’s No. 1 show right now, but advertisers are still paying much more for commercials during Fox News shows.
According to new data from Standard Media Index, Fox News’s 8 p.m. show, Tucker Carlson Tonight earns $13,779 for a :30 commercial, while Maddow, at 9 p.m. on MSNBC, earns $4,193 per :30 spot. Granted, Fox News’s previous 8 p.m. show, The O’Reilly Factor, was cable’s No. 1 show for more than 15 years with a loyal, built-in audience, many of whom have stuck with Carlson. At the same time, Carlson has also improved the timeslot 13 percent from the average cost in Q2 2016.
Maddow saw the biggest ad revenue hike in cable news, up 74 percent vs. Q2 2016. FNC’s Sean Hannity’s ad revenue increased 53 percent year over year, while CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper was up 46 percent.
Fox News, MSNBC and CNN combined saw an 18 percent increase in ad spend during the second quarter, with MSNBC up the most, 40 percent, followed by CNN up 21 percent and Fox News up 11 percent.
There’s much more in the quarterly SMI report over at Adweek.