Tampa: Picking up soon after a slow start

As a large market in a swing state, Tampa’s media economy enjoyed a strong 2012 boosted heavily by political ad spending. First-quarter spending was especially strong last year because of the early Florida primary.

And so, like many other cities with strong election spending last year, this post-election year has started more slowly for Tampa.

Still, buyers say spending will begin to pick up in March and last through at least early summer. Media people hoping to get their clients on the air during those months should move quickly.

Demand and pricing on Tampa TV are down slightly so far in 2013, which was expected.

“Pricing is almost always down for the first month or two of the year, but it won’t hold once March comes around,” says Ann Caskey, senior broadcast specialist at Empower MediaMarketing.

“The market will be decent through June due to automotive spending, decent retail sales figures and based on what the market seems to be feeling from consumers.”

As always, the top-rated primetime TV shows are most in demand in Tampa, while other strong dayparts include early morning news, early evening news, early fringe and prime access.

Softer dayparts this year include late news and daytime.

Advertisers hoping to get on the air at the last minute can do so without a problem right now, but that won’t last. Says Caskey: “Wait a month and that will change.”

Meanwhile, radio spending and pricing are flat to down slightly versus the same time in 2012. Yet demand is still fairly strong and advertisers will have to pay a premium to get on the air at the last minute.

“Most weeks have high demand,” says Caskey. “Rates may see a 10 to 15 percent spike for last-minute business.”

She says afternoon drive not only attracts the most demand but also the most active listeners, with morning drive closely behind. Mid-day is one of the least in-demand dayparts, but it may offer buyers the best value.

“Midday typically offers packaging, however PPM [ratings] have shown that some of the stations have extremely high listenership in this daypart,” Caskey says.

Strong radio categories include auto, legal referral, finance and fast food, while restaurants, education and recruitment have slowed spending.

There are a lot of strong radio stations in Tampa, and Cox has the market’s top three.

During the holiday period (Dec. 6-Jan. 2), Cox’s adult contemporary station WWRM-FM was easily the market’s top station with a 12.0 average portable people meter rating, according to Arbitron.

The company’s soft adult contemporary station WDUV-FM was No. 2 with an 8.7 rating, while its classic hits station WXGL-FM was third with a 6.0.

Tags: advertisers, auto, buyers, dayparts, election, media, people, radio, retail, tv, WTSP, WTVT