Disney, Comcast, Lionsgate and WBD Ad Spend on Elon Musk’s X Falls 98%

https://www.thewrap.com/disney-wbd-comcast-lionsgate-x-ad-spend-twitter/

Disney, Comcast, Lionsgate Entertainment and Warner Bros. Discovery have all resumed their ad spend on X, according to new data from MediaRadar.

The market intelligence firm (which tracks feed image, carousel and video ads captured from a panel of over 2 million U.S. users, with the top 96% of impressions tracked) found that the companies have collectively spent less than $3.3 million on the Elon Musk-owned platform between this January and September — a 98% year-over-year drop from the $170 million spent during the same period in 2023.

Comcast spent less than $1.5 million on X ads during the nine-month period, while Disney spent less than $550,000, Lionsgate spent less than $230,000 and WBD spent less than $1.1 million, TheWrap has learned. Meanwhile, Apple and IBM, which were also tracked, spent nothing and less than $2,000, respectively.

A Disney spokesperson confirmed to TheWrap that they resumed some advertising on the platform over the summer. Representatives for Comcast, Lionsgate and WBD did not immediately return TheWrap’s request for comment.

The major entertainment brands first paused their ad spend, along with Sony, Paramount and Netflix, in November 2023. That’s after Musk faced intense criticism for promoting and agreeing with a post on X (formerly Twitter) that glorified an antisemitic conspiracy theory.

At the time, The New York Times estimated that X was poised to lose as much as $75 million in advertising revenue by the end of 2023 due to the suspensions.

In addition to Disney, Lionsgate, Comcast and WBD, TheWrap previously reported that Netflix resumed its ad spend in December 2023 after the Times reported that the streamer halted nearly $3 million in ads due to the controversy.

In total, MediaRadar’s data sample found that advertising on X reached nearly $1.1 billion through the third quarter of 2024, down 29% from $1.5 billion spent during the same period last year.

The top three advertisers included were Karma Shopping, GZ JY Ecommerce (Canles shoes) and Kueez Entertainment, which each spent more than $12 million for a combined $68 million so far this year.

“Just want to say that we super appreciate major brands resuming advertising on our platform,” Musk wrote in an X post on Friday. “Thanks @lindayaX and the whole X team for your hard work in restoring confidence in our platform and ensuring that advertising content only appears where advertisers want it shown.”

While some brands have resumed their working relationship with X, some of the platform’s users have ditched it entirely in the wake of Donald Trump winning the 2024 election.

Beneficiaries of the X exodus include BlueSky, which saw its daily active user count jump 62% in the week following the election; and Threads, which had 11 million daily active users in the U.S. during the same period, a 6.8% increase from the day before the election, according to Sensor Tower.

Still, X enjoyed a 5% post-election increase in U.S. daily users over the same period, with 25 million daily active American users, per Sensor Tower’s data.

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