The decline mostly reflects pullbacks in diabetes and blood disorder advertising, not a broad retreat from linear TV advertising.

Pharma linear TV ad spending totaled $1.25 billion in Q3, with prescription drug commercials taking the leading share of national TV ad spending for the quarter, according to iSpot.tv. Pharma marketers are reallocating more of their budgets toward digital—especially connected TV (CTV) and social media—for more precise targeting and measurement gains. However, linear TV is still important for Big Pharma, especially for mainstream events like live sports, to drive board awareness of common health conditions. We expect linear TV’s scale, trust, and cultural relevance will keep it in the mix for the foreseeable future.