Every weekday we bring you the Ad Age/iSpot Hot Spots, new commercials tracked by iSpot.tv, the always-on TV ad measurement and attribution company.

Ahead of its new Q3 report, iSpot shared a list of the most seen CPG brands on TV last quarter, by share-of-voice (SOV). Most notable on that list: pet food manufacturer Blue Buffalo jumped into the top 10 from No. 26 in Q2 with a 32.9% increase in impressions, aided by more airings on morning talk shows like Today and Good Morning America. Nutrition drink Boost also grew, with a 50% increase in impressions quarter-over-quarter.

Notably, Yellowstone scores the highest iSpot Attention Index (124) in the ranking, meaning viewers were on average highly likely to watch its promos all the way through (vs. interrupting viewing by changing the channel, pulling up the guide, fast-forwarding or turning off the TV).

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Conviva and measurement company iSpot also teamed up to integrate data for a unified cross-platform ratings product to measure ads and programming together – with NBCUniversal one of the companies signed on so far.

In light of that, rival measurement providers like Comscore, iSpot.TV and VideoAmp are not only competing against Nielsen to provide measurement capabilities, but also planning tools. Those measurement and planning capabilities are very much intertwined.

A few highlights: Nike serves up yet another installment of its continuing campaign featuring LeBron James battling Father Time—and this time Father Time wins. (Ad Age’s Adrianne Pasquarelli previewed the campaign on Oct. 18: “Nike pits LeBron James against Jason Momoa’s Father Time in new teaser.”) Walmart shows scenes of various families’ seasonal celebrations in a spot with the tagline “All the things we need for all the ways we holiday.” And Reggie Bush helps Wendy’s hype its current $3 breakfast deal.

It proceeds to quote advertiser, agency and ad-tech executives about problems such as excessive ad repetition and the June 2022 Group M/iSpot.TV study that found that about 8% to 10% of streaming ad impressions play when TVs are shut off, wasting an estimated $1 billion per year in advertising investments.

TV Squared raised $27m when it was listed in comparison to its competitors VideoAmp, which raised $275m, and iSpot, which raised $335m.

Arby’s has pursued a number of campaigns to raise visibility over the last year, including a diss track targeting McDonald’s and a digital media spot ad with Old Spice. Arby’s climbed from the #49 brand spot in terms of overall TV ad impressions to the #12 brand across industries, according to iSpot.tv. The brand added a new CMO, Rita Patel, earlier this month.…

Arby’s has pursued a number of campaigns to raise visibility over the last year, including a diss track targeting McDonald’s and a digital media spot ad with Old Spice. Arby’s climbed from the #49 brand spot in terms of overall TV ad impressions to the #12 brand across industries,

With the help of a national TV airwaves $21.7 million in overall TV spend, per iSpot.tv, "Black Adam" opened to a strong $67 million in U.S. and Canadian box-office revenue this past weekend, according to Comscore.

While there’s been plenty of talk and a fair amount of experimentation in alternatives to Nielsen TV measurement, what’s rare is a big-spending marketer embracing the idea openly. T-Mobile VP-Media Kari Marshall said the wireless carrier is using iSpot.tv data not just to optimize against key performance indicators but also to get audits of media performance on a monthly basis, “which a few years ago was impossible for us to do.”

Marshall went into detail about T-Mobile’s partnership with NBCUniversal and iSpot on cross-platform measurement, and expressed hope the arrangement can extend to other networks, which includes tying media data back to T-Mobile business outcomes.

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Q3 spending dropped 23.5% to $472 million compared to $617.2 million in the second quarter for live and new programming tracked by i.Spot.tv.

Total Q3 impressions for CPG brands were 90.8 billion compared to 99.9 billion in the second quarter.

At the same time, traditional cable TV news channels continue to show gains in overall impressions in the most recent third-quarter period 2022, according to iSpot.

Fox News, MSNBC and CNN grew their collective share of TV ad impressions from 22.5% from 20.3% in the third quarter of 2021. Fox was at 76.6 billion impressions, followed by MSNBC at 41.2 billion and CNN, at 35.2 billion.

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According to iSpot.tv, QSR ad impressions have been buoyed by the return to post-pandemic normalcy in live sports, which accounted for over 40% of all QSR ad impressions between Q1 2021 and Q2 2022. Ad impressions for QSR brands improved somewhat quarter over quarter, despite their fall from last year’s peak, and QSR now outpaces automakers and insurance companies as the leading driver of TV ad impressions, according to iSpot.tv.

At the same time, traditional cable TV news channels continue to show gains in overall impressions in the most third quarter period 2022, according to iSpot.

While short of 2020 high-water marks, iSpot says cable TV news is outpacing both the third quarter of 2019 and 2018.

But behind the scenes, much of the discussion around measurement is centered on cost, as well as cumbersome long-term contracts with Nielsen, which has operated as a near monopoly for decades. Despite inroads by competitors like Comscore, VideoAmp and iSpot.tv, particularly in the past year, TV networks are still working under long-term contracts developed when Nielsen had the power to largely dictate terms.