Boycott Crushes Fox News As Bill O’Reilly Loses More Than 50% Of His Advertisers

A new analysis reveals that Fox News has lost more than 50% of the advertisers for The O’Reilly Factor and new advertisers are not replacing those who have left.

An analysis from Kanter Media provided to PoliticusUSA revealed how much advertising O’Reilly has lost, “In the four weeks prior to the revelation an average prime time telecast of O’Reilly Factor carried 33 national spots totaling 14 minutes, 32 seconds (14:32 mm:ss) of commercial time. (These figures exclude promotional announcements by Fox News and local ad time sold by cable system operators). Post-revelation, paid commercial time bottomed out on April 7th at seven spots and 4:40 mm:ss before rebounding in the April 10th telecast to eleven spots and 7:20 mm:ss.”

As you can see, advertising time on The O’Reilly Factor has dropped by more than half:

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Here is a list of the advertisers that have left and what is replacing the big name brands:

Jon Swallen, CRO, Kantar Media, points out that big name national brands are leaving and are being replaced by smaller budget brands and direct response marketers. Fox News has stated that the advertisers leaving O’Reily are being featured on other programming within the network, but those advertisers aren’t paying the same rates in their new slots that they were paying to be featured during the top-rated program on cable news. Also, fewer spots sold equals less money for the network, and repositioning of ads on to other programs means that there is less space for new advertisers.

No matter how it is sliced, the advertiser boycott is costing Fox News money.

Fox is hoping that this crisis will pass and that the advertisers will return, but the advertising of Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh demonstrate that as long as public pressure is applied, the advertisers won’t be back.

Fox News is paying the price for supporting Bill O’Reilly. It doesn’t matter how many people are watching; the network will lose money as long as advertisers stay away from The O’Reilly Factor.

The numbers don’t lie. The boycott is working as “The No Spin Zone” is quickly turning into the “No Revenue Zone” for Fox News.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association