Social media ratings firm Share Rocket said the market opportunity for broadcasters making sponsored premium social content could exceed $1.4 billion in 2018.
The firm’s findings are based on analyzing one year’s worth of historical social impressions, video views and engagement on social media across 210 television markets.
“Local TV broadcasters know that in this evolving media market with several options for consuming news, building their social media presence is key to tapping into additional audience segments and to developing new revenue opportunities,” said Chris Kraft, CEO at Share Rocket, in a statement. “Part of our mission at Share Rocket is to provide local broadcasting stations with the knowledge and supporting data to help them monetize their social media audiences. By providing a valuation of untapped sponsored premium content, we hope to help these stations create meaningful social revenue from their highly engaged and growing social audiences.”
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The firms broke out the prospects for sponsored content in top TV market segments, with the top overall market in the U.S. being Chicago.
• Top 10 markets = $446 million
• Top 20 markets = $747 million
• Top 50 markets = $1.08 billion
• Top 100 markets = $1.3 billion
Share Rocket’s social media estimates come with a $233 million sales potential for 2018, which it says “discounts the overall market opportunity to account for the various dynamics in the emerging local sponsored social content marketplace."
But Share Rocket said that as the market for premium branded social content advertising matures in the coming years, they expect both tremendous growth in the market as well as a higher percentage of that market to be addressable.