The data: Pharma’s prescription drug TV spending totaled $706 million in October, down 14.5% from $826 million a year earlier, per iSpot data shared with EMARKETER. Linear spending fell 22% YoY, while streaming rose 4.4%, according to iSpot.

Why it matters: Live sports remain a major draw for prescription drug advertisers, accounting for 31% of their national linear TV spending in October, according to iSpot.tv. But fewer high-priced Major League Baseball (MLB) postseason games, including the World Series, may have contributed to the month's spending decline, per iSpot. MLB played 32 postseason games in October 2026, compared with 42 a year earlier, per the league’s 2025 and 2026 schedules.

The seasonal lift in linear prescription drug ad spending was smaller this year. Spending rose 8.5% from September to October compared with 23% during the same period in 2025, per iSpot. That gap stands out because Q4 is typically the biggest TV advertising quarter across industries, driven partly by premium sporting events including the World Series, NFL, and NBA games, per an iSpot analyst.

October's prescription drug ad spending decline also comes amid a broader shift from linear TV across healthcare and pharma. Healthcare and pharma linear TV spending will fall 6.6% this year to $5.89 billion, while connected TV (CTV) spending grows, per EMARKETER’s forecast.