Why This MattersAdvertisers are seeking evidence that their spots work, and research shows viewers respond to ads in lifestyle programming.
At a time when many networks are looking to cut back on commercials, Scripps Networks Interactive says its viewers like and respond to the advertising it shows.
Scripps Networks has long claimed that its brand of lifestyle programming - focusing on areas including home, food and travel - is more advertiser-friendly than other types of programming and will be pointing to new research to back up its claims.
It will be doing so, however, in the midst of corporate changes. Now that it has been acquired by Discovery Communications, the two companies are scrambling to incorporate each other's networks into their upfront presentations. Discovery was taking an agency-by-agency approach, while Scripps is starting a six-city road show of upfront events beginning March 20 in Detroit.
The two companies haven't been able to communicate since the acquisition was announced. With the deal closing last week, just as presentations are starting, we'll try to make it as balanced as possible, said Jon Steinlauf, the Scripps veteran who was named chief advertising sales officer for the combined company.
Numbers compiled by Simmons Research on engagement show why advertising works on Scripps, Steinlauf said.
In the study, about 15,000 people were asked about the advertising they saw on cable channels. One question asked how well the ads fit with the content on the channel. Responses were grouped by parent company and Scripps Networks came out on top among 10 programmers with a 136 index - 36% above average.
Conveniently, Discovery came in second, followed by Viacom, NBCUniversal, Turner, Fox, A+E, Disney, AMC Networks and Crown Media.
Another question asked consumers to rank the networks on whether the ads were about things they cared about.
Scripps was first again with a 138 index, Steinlauf said.
The last category asked if the products and services advertised were of high quality, he said. Scripps was again first amongst the 10 with a 133 index.
The research backs up the theme of the Scripps presentation, which is, Advertising Works Here.
You Can't Beat Live
One reason why advertising works on Scripps is because a lot of it is watched live, like sports or news programming.
There's a unique distinction about Scripps, which is even though the shows aren't live, the audience uses the content in a very similar manner that they use sports, news and event programming, Steinlauf said. They prefer overwhelmingly to watch these channels live, so we don't want to be thrown into a bucket with all of these scripted shows that are recorded or not even embedded with advertising.
A lot of ads are being wiped out as viewers fast-forward through commercials in shows watched on DVRs or on-demand, or binge on network shows on Netflix, Hulu and Amazon.
I think it's a lot easier to get somebody to see an ad live than it is to try to get them to see it once it falls into any form of time-shifting or streaming, he said.
One reason why Scripps' live numbers are high is because its brands are distinctive and it is able to produce 4,000 episodes a year of original programming.
Brands have never ever mattered the way they do now, said Kathleen Finch, who had been in charge of programming at Scripps Networks but after the Discovery deal will head a portfolio of networks including HGTV, Food Network, TLC, ID, Travel Channel, DIY Network, Cooking Channel, Discovery Life, American Heroes Channel, Destination America and GAC as chief lifestyle brands officer.
There are all these different options where you can go for drama and entertainment and comedy. All of our viewers know that if you want lifestyle you come to our brands. And that's a promise that we can fulfill seven nights a week, Finch said.
The Scripps networks have been ratcheting up the number of original shows on HGTV. According to Finch, HGTV will have a premiere episode of one of its series every night, 365 nights a year. I don't think any other network can say that, she said.
And it might not matter which show is new that night. It never bothers us when we go out to focus groups and viewers don't exactly know the names of the shows they're always watching, Finch said. That's OK. What they say is, I turn on HGTV.' I turn on Food Network.' I turn on Travel Channel, because I'm in the mood for it and I know I will be satisfied,' she said. And that's a much better business proposition than having a hit on Tuesday and then nothing else the rest of the week. [Our advertisers know they're] getting the same upscale, quality, endemic engaged audience every night of the week.
Stunt Programming Is a Piece of Cake
That doesn't mean Scripps Networks don't do programming stunts and specials. On Food Network, for examples, Mondays have turned into baking night, with series including Vegas Cakes, Dallas Cakes and Ridiculous Cakes.
And on Travel Channel, Expedition Unknown host Josh Gates will be doing a special, Expedition Unknown: Hunt for the Afterlife.
Scripps may have found a formula for Travel. Our sweet spot is finding adventurous things, Finch said, pointing to shows such as Hunting Evidence, Finding Beasts and Lost Gold. These amazing exploration-mystery shows are really resonating with Travel viewers and we've got a bunch more that we'll be premiering in 2018.
Those shows should resonate with advertisers as well.
Another piece of research for Scripps used neuroscience to measure the impact of advertising and media. In the study, viewers were shown the same spots from all of the major ad categories in different genres of programming. The result: When ads were shown in lifestyle programming, enga
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
19/11/2025
Sphere Sound Kicks Up Its Heels at Radio City Music HallUltra-immersive system from the singular Las Vegas venue is also ready for sportsBy Dan Daley, Audio Edi...
19/11/2025
The Future of Stadium and Arena Video Control Rooms: Tech Leaders Talk 4K, IP, a...
19/11/2025
One Year at Intuit Dome: Walking Through the Stunning Arena's Advanced Video...
19/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: IMG's Francois Westcombe Goes Inside IMG's Annual Digital ...
19/11/2025
Inside Brighton & Hove Albion's fan-first media machine By George Bevir
Tuesday, November 18, 2025 - 10:10
Print This Story
Brighton & Hove Albion'...
19/11/2025
Rock Chalk Rebuild, Part 1: Kansas Athletics Brings New Production Power to Rebu...
19/11/2025
Rock Chalk Rebuild, Part 2: A Pro's Guide to Kansas Athletics' New Video...
19/11/2025
MLB Media Rights Shakeup: NBC Inks Three-Year Deal for Sunday Night Baseball, Pe...
19/11/2025
Rohan Parashuram Kanawade attends the premiere of Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears) at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival at Egyptian Theatre on January 26, 2025, in Pa...
19/11/2025
Awards season is heating up, and the International Documentary Association just ...
19/11/2025
Aerojet Rocketdyne President Ken Bedingfield and Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders were joined by state and local officials to celebrate the groundbreaking o...
19/11/2025
L3Harris and PentenAmio formalise their teaming agreement at MilCIS 2025, streng...
19/11/2025
Calrec gives Phoenix Broadcast Solutions its full support in strategic multi-year enterprise partnership New Singapore OB company invests in Calrec technology f...
19/11/2025
October brings a larger audience in front of TV screens. The cooler autumn weather and the continuation of new programming schedules brought increases in both t...
19/11/2025
IRVING, Texas Nexstar Media Group and Tegna filed applications on Nov. 18 with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seeking its consent to transfer broad...
19/11/2025
Vitec has acquired Datapath, a developer of real-time video processing for large-scale video walls, AVoIP content distribution and KVM control in mission-critic...
19/11/2025
NEVADA CITY, Calif. Telestream has introduced ARGUS Version 2.3, which introduces Live Look, a feature that lets operators inspect live and on-demand streams vi...
19/11/2025
STAMFORD, Conn. and NEW YORK Charter Communications, Inc. has announced a major deal with Amazon Web Services (AWS) that establishes AWS as one of Charters stra...
19/11/2025
TOKYO Atomos has announced a major firmware update that brings integrated camera control to the Ninja TX GO and Ninja TX its new CFexpress-based monitor-recor...
19/11/2025
Berklee's Signature Series Reimagines the Musical and Visual Artistry of Col...
19/11/2025
PlayBox Neo departed the NAB Show New York 2025 on a high note. The company's all-new PlayBox Neo Suite made a splash on the show floor, drawing strong inte...
19/11/2025
AAVBR (American Audio Visual Baton Rouge), a leading full-service event production company serving Louisiana and the Gulf Coast region, has enhanced its product...
19/11/2025
In its mission to deliver live event services combining advanced engineering with a creative approach to captivating live sports and entertainment experiences, ...
19/11/2025
NEW YORK Short-form vertical video has exploded across platforms like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, but a new survey commissioned by Media.net, a provider of c...
19/11/2025
NEW YORK YES Network, the regional sports network home of the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Nets, and CAMB.AI have struck a partnership they said will leverage ...
19/11/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has issued detailed guidance on filings that were disrupted by the government shutdown. While many of those fil...
19/11/2025
NEW YORK The popularity of NFL games is largely responsible for continued seasonal momentum in TV viewership into October (measured Sept. 29-Oct. 26), according...
19/11/2025
DirecTV has announced that its MyFree DirecTV streaming service has added seven new channels. Those include four sports services, NBA FAST, Red Bull TV, DAZN Ri...
19/11/2025
SURREY, U.K. Mark Roberts Motion Control (MRMC) has launched Flair Bridge, a compact device that transforms how operators control the company's motion-contr...
19/11/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission, which is continuing to rapidly ramp up its operations after the end of the federal government shutdown, has se...
19/11/2025
IRVING, Texas Nexstar Media Group and Tegna filed applications on Nov. 18 with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seeking its consent to transfer broad...
19/11/2025
Martin Freeman, Jessie Buckley, Wu-Tang Clan's Raekwon, Eddie the Eagle and ...
19/11/2025
Rohde & Schwarz collaborates with Broadcom to enable testing and validation of n...
19/11/2025
Back to All News
Innato, starring Imanol Arias and Elena Anaya, arrives on Netf...
19/11/2025
Back to All News
Guillermo del Toro Sits Down With Troll 2 Director Roar Uthaug...
19/11/2025
Some projects feel monumental from the moment the first phone call comes in. When BCE, the host broadcaster appointed to coordinate the national coverage, asked...
19/11/2025
November 19 2025, 08:00 (PST) BAY AREA HOST COMMITTEE AND DOLBY PARTNER TO DELIVER IMMERSIVE FAN EXPERIENCES
During the Week of Football's Biggest Game...
19/11/2025
Michael D. Higgins: Ireland's Ninth President features RT Archives footage and interviews across seven decades
Watch Wednesday 19 November at 9:35pm on RT...
19/11/2025
Scripps Research scientists receive $1.1 million to advance AI modeling for HIV vaccine development New AI system helps scientists rapidly pinpoint the most pro...
18/11/2025
Independent media across Central America are operating under intensifying financial pressure, yet there is a clear appetite for models that can sustain both ind...
18/11/2025
NBA Debuts New Comms Infrastructure and Systems for RefereesTwo-phase rollout is intended to improve game flow, enhance officiating accuracyBy Dan Daley, Audio ...
18/11/2025
Platinum White Paper: How Aggreko Delivers Certainty For Broadcasters On The Wor...
18/11/2025
Kiswe Extends DTC Products With Kiswe Core Cloud-Based Tool for Distributing Con...
18/11/2025
Spanish Basketball Federation partners with ScorePlay to power digital transform...
18/11/2025
HBS selects BBright encoders and decoders to connect ST 2110 live production wor...
18/11/2025
Ashes to Ashes: Inside TNT Sports' hybrid and maverick' production plan...
18/11/2025
SVG All-Stars: Mimi Fotopoulos, Director, Talent and Production Operations, Tenn...
18/11/2025
SVG LIVE! Conference Explores the Tech Side of Sports and Entertainment ConvergenceLive sports and music productions increasingly share gear and infrastructureB...
Why This MattersAdvertisers are seeking evidence that their spots work, and research shows viewers respond to ads in lifestyle programming.
