Advertising investment in pay and open television is already similar in the United States

While the large networks saw advertising investment slow down in 2008 and 2009, due to the financial crisis in the country, cable channels began to appear as an alternative, since they can attract audiences from different niches.

According to Nielsen, advertising investment on pay channels in the United States is higher than that of free-to-air channels. In 2011, a total of $21 billion was invested in pay TV and a similar amount in free TV.

It is the first time that free-to-air television networks match the paid offer in terms of advertising investment. Since 2007, the amount of investment in pay channels in the United States has increased by 47%. One explanation for this growth is that the medium has entered a phase of maturity, with an increase in the quality of the content offered, generating a larger audience. While the large networks saw advertising investment slow down in 2008 and 2009, due to the financial crisis in the country, cable channels began to appear as an alternative, since they can attract audiences from different niches.

However, the strength of free-to-air TV in the US is even greater than cable in the United States. In fact, a spot broadcast in prime time on one of the networks such as NBC, CW, ABC, Fox and CBS, for example, is still much more expensive than an insertion on cable channels. According to Nielsen, the television market in the US would still be trying to recover the level of advertising investment prior to the start of the crisis in 2008, when the amount of annual investment reached its historical maximum of $25 billion.