Fed-up advertisers stop paying more for smaller TV audiences

TV ratings have dropped 33% in the last four years while TV ad prices are up 20% during that period

In the coming weeks, TV networks will host glitzy events in New York to convince advertisers to spend more money on the latest dramas and reality shows. Many ad buyers, however, say they’re tired of paying ever-higher prices to reach ever-fewer viewers.

Thanks to competition from so many new forms of entertainment — Netflix, Facebook, Snapchat — audiences for traditional TV networks, from ESPN to MTV, are declining. In the current TV season, the four major broadcasters have lost 8 per cent of their audience. Because of the slumping ratings, advertisers who want to reach a certain amount of eyeballs can’t