The trend: Prescription drug advertisers allocated 21.9% of their national TV ad budgets to news programming in H1 2026, more than any other category tracked by iSpot, according to data shared with EMARKETER. Health-adjacent categories accounted for in the next two top spots: Over-the-counter and non-prescription health and beauty at 13.2% and non-prescription pharma and medical at 12.2%.

Zooming in on the data: Pharma’s largest national TV investment is concentrated in news, putting its ads in front of an audience that skews older. The median viewer of ABC, CBS, and NBC news is at least 55, compared with a median age of 47 among US adults, per Pew Research.

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Pharma favored TV news for prescription drug ads in H1

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