The Media Manager

09/02/2026

Podcast CPMs aren't moving in one direction in 2026. Programmatic is loosening as mid-tier inventory expands. Host-read in business, tech, and finance shows is tightening as demand outpaces supply.

Buyers pricing podcast as a single average are leaving performance on the table.

Read more ⬇️

Podcast CPMs aren't moving in one direction in 2026. Programmatic is loosening as mid-tier inventory expands. Host-read in business, tech, and finance shows is tightening as demand outpaces supply. Buyers pricing podcast as a single average are leaving performance on the table.

08/27/2026

Nearly seven in ten CTV advertisers, expect to increase spending this year by an average of 17%. Forty percent cited the ability to pair traditional TV's branding power with digital-grade precision, and four in five agreed that combining linear TV and CTV drives stronger results across both brand and outcome metrics.

Read the full article through the link in the comments ⬇️

08/26/2026

Paid streaming subscribers are supposed to be the audience that's left linear TV behind. TVB's 2026 Purchase Funnel Study found they still rank it their top awareness driver, at 38%, the highest answer in the group.

YouTube viewers say the same thing at 42%. FAST and AVOD users land at 41%. The pattern holds across every streaming habit.

08/25/2026

Football returns, and last season's numbers show exactly why that matters.

Nielsen's Q4 2025 Ad Supported Gauge found sports viewing jumped 135% once football started, pushing overall ad-supported TV to its highest level of the year. NFL advertising revenue hit $5.9 billion for the 2025-26 season.

At Media Manager, we read that as a simple signal: live TV still draws a crowd nothing else does, and the plans that account for it early beat the ones scrambling once the season's already underway.

Link in the comments ⬇️

08/20/2026

Happy National Radio Day!

New Nielsen data shows AM/FM radio reaching 87% of U.S. adults on a weekly basis in the first quarter of 2026 — a reminder of just how much staying power this medium has, decades after its first broadcast.

Radio has been part of the media mix at Media Manager since day one, and it still delivers the way it always has: broad reach, real trust, week after week.

08/19/2026

165 million Americans listen to a podcast monthly now, 55% of the population 12 and up, per Edison Research's 2026 Infinite Dial. That's not a niche audience anymore.

The pricing backs it up: US podcast ad revenue is up 34.8% year over year to $3.1 billion, and mid-roll CPMs just hit a record $28.50, per the IAB/PwC Podcast Advertising Revenue Study.

08/18/2026

TVB's 2026 Purchase Funnel Study found consumers credit linear TV as the top driver of product awareness four times more often than social.

Nielsen ties that to a 23% brand awareness lift, more than double digital's 9%.

In our latest article, we explore what this means for a 2026 media mix. Link in the comments⬇️

08/13/2026

A look inside this week's Client Services & Buying Team Sync.

Led by President Justin Bumann, this weekly session brings together the people who buy the media and the people who own the client relationship. One agenda, zero silos.

On the docket this week:
• Market read: Football is BACK!
• Baseball playoffs and the World Series on the board
• Linear and CTV working together

Strategy, results, data, and a few laughs, all woven into the work of keeping our clients' campaigns moving the needle.

08/12/2026

Combined print and digital news readership reaches 118 million Americans weekly, about 44% of US adults, skewing toward households with above-average income, exactly the audience most brands are building consideration for.

At Media Manager, we help clients use print where it does what no scrollable feed can: hold a reader's undivided attention on a page they chose to pick up.

Link in the comments ⬇️

08/11/2026

Most media channels ask you to pick a lane: brand or response, awareness or action.

Radio doesn't ask you to pick. In a single 30-second spot, you can establish who you are and tell someone exactly what to do next. Cultural relevance at the top. Measurable action at the bottom. It's the structure that makes audio one of the most versatile formats in offline media, and the brands that plan it that way get the most out of it.