RETAIL AND CPG REMAIN THE LARGEST TV ADVERTISERS

EMARKETER projects that when 2025 ad spending is tallied, Retail will account for 19% of all TV advertising dollars. That’s up from 17.6% last year and keeps them above all other industries (Consumer Packaged Goods will come in second with 15.3%). The industries for which TV makes up the largest portion of their ad budget are Healthcare/Pharma (17.1%), with Automotive close behind (16.8%). (EMARKETER: September 29, 2025)

CONSUMERS SPENDING BIG ON SPOOKY SEASON DÉCOR

It seems every suburban neighborhood has at least one yard with a comically large skeleton, or a half-dozen inflatables, or maybe both and more. Beyond being fun to look at, it’s also a welcome trend for stores. The National Retail Federation expects Halloween décor to scare up $4.2 billion this season. More people are buying decorations than costumes, and it’s a bigger spending category than candy. (NRF: October 1, 2025)

WNBA’S POSTSEASON DRAWS RECORD AUDIENCES

The 2025 WNBA Playoffs set new records for ESPN, with 24 games delivering an average of 1.2 million viewers, a 5% increase versus last year. The network’s pregame show, WNBA Countdown, saw an even greater lift: its 437,000-viewer average was up 30% versus last year. The Finals didn’t offer a ton of suspense as the Las Vegas Aces swept the Phoenix Mercury, and overall Finals viewership dipped a bit from 2024. Still, 1.9 million people tuned in to Game 1 of that series, ranking it the most-watched Finals game since the league’s inaugural season in 1997. It should be noted that all of this was achieved even as star Caitlin Clark was sidelined by injuries and only appeared in 13 games all season. (Reuters: October 14, 2025)

CTV POISED FOR BIG WIN IN 2026 MIDTERMS

It’s expected that next year will be the most expensive midterm election cycle ever, with ad spending set to reach $10 billion (for comparison, the 2022 midterms were a paltry $8.9 billion). Even more striking, Connected TV is projected to get $2.48 billion of it. That’s more than double 2022 and slightly more than 2024’s presidential year. In fact, CTV is the only medium predicted to post an increase vs. 2024. Cost efficiency isn’t the only reason; campaigns and PACs are attracted to the channel’s ability to be both wide-reaching and finely targeted. (AdImpact: September, 2025)

THIS WEEK IN VIDEO HISTORY
October 15, 1951 – America Meets Lucy & Ricky

When I Love Lucy’s first episode, “The Girls Want to Go to a Nightclub,” aired, who would have thought people would still watch the series nearly 75 years later? That’s mainly because instead of broadcasting live and preserving episodes as low-quality kinescopes, they shot the show on 35mm film. This allowed Lucy to air for generations to enjoy and essentially invented the rerun model. View a clip from the debut episode.