Here Are the Top Cable News Advertisers for Q3 2018

By A.J. Katz 

Anderson Cooper 360 had the most advertisers of any cable news show in Q3 2018, 293.

The Story with Martha MacCallum attracted the most advertisers of any Fox News program with 248, while The Rachel Maddow Show was No. 1 for MSNBC with 283 advertisers.

This is according to research from Alphonso, a TV data company which specializes in providing brands and agencies with TV ad campaign measurement and attribution.

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“Cable news can be a particularly interesting vehicle to look for trends in advertising,” svp of research for Alphonso, TS Kelly told TVNewser. “In Q3, one of the most notable findings is that significantly fewer brands advertised on both Hannity and The Ingraham Angle shows on Fox News. The Ingraham Angle show had just 128 different advertisers while Hannity had 150.

Activist groups from the left pushed for advertiser boycotts of those two shows earlier this year, but did that have any sort of impact on Q3 advertiser interest? Do brands want to steer of controversial, opinion programming?

“Perhaps,” said Kelly. “But this doesn’t necessarily reflect the network. Fox News does tend to have fewer advertisers than CNN and MSNBC, but not by much.”

So which brands advertise the most on cable news?

Per data from Alphonso, CNN’s Top 10 advertisers in Q3, 2018 ranked by airings. Top brands were insurance juggernaut Progressive and high-tech pillow and mattress company, Purple.

  1. Progressive (1,036 airings)
  2. Purple (838 airings)
  3. T-Mobile (803 airings)
  4. Sono Bello (641 airings)
  5. AARP (579 airings)
  6. SoClean (563 airings)
  7. Humira (558 airings)
  8. NutriSystem (392 airings)
  9. Otezla (356 airings)
  10. Neulasta (306 airings)

Leading among Fox News’ Top 10 advertisers in Q3 – fellow insurance giant Liberty Mutual followed closely by MyPillow, which spends almost exclusively on Fox News versus the other two cable news networks.  MyPillow is a brand Fox News diehards are VERY familiar with.

  1. Liberty Mutual (1,083 airings)
  2. MyPillow (1,024 airings)
  3. Progressive (794 airings)
  4. NordVPN (679 airings)
  5. NutriSystem (614 airings)
  6. SoClean (428 airings)
  7. Purple (420 airings)
  8. ClearChoice (376 airings)
  9. Otezla (330 airings)
  10. Ozempic (247 airings)

MSNBC’s top spending advertisers by airings in Q3 were SmileDirectClub and Progressive Insurance. Progressive is the only top spending brand appearing on all three Top 10 lists.

  1. SmileDirectClub (1,357 airings)
  2. Progressive (1,016 airings)
  3. NordVPN (828 airings)
  4. Angie’s List (819 airings)
  5. Wayfair (671 airings)
  6. HomeAdvisor (637 airings)
  7. ZipRecruiter (586 airings)
  8. Independence University (433 airings)
  9. AARP (394 airings)
  10. Entyvio (233 airings)

Lastly, here are the cable news shows with the largest number of advertisers in Q3 2018, per Alphonso data:

  1. Anderson Cooper 360 (293)
  2. CNN Tonight with Don Lemon (286) – 10 & 11 p.m.
  3. The Rachel Maddow Show (283)
  4. All in with Chris Hayes (278)
  5. The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell (276)
  6. Hardball with Chris Matthews (272)
  7. Cuomo Prime Time (254)
  8. The 11th Hour with Brian Williams (254)
  9. The Story with Martha MacCallum (248)
  10. Tucker Carlson Tonight (247)
  11. The Beat with Ari Melber (242)
  12. OutFront with Erin Burnett (238)
  13. The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer (236) – 6 p.m.
  14. Special Report with Bret Baier (233)
  15. Fox News @ Night with Shannon Bream (214)
  16. Hannity (150)
  17. The Ingraham Angle (128)

 

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