• by Wayne Friedman , April 15, 2016

Marketers spent $487.8 million in national TV advertising from mid-October to mid-April, according to iSpot.tv. This compares to $329.8 million for the 2014-2015 season.

For the just-completed season, there were 41,969 national airings of TV commercials, 3,189 individual TV commercials, and 1,065 brands on ABC,TNT, ESPN, ESPN2 and NBA TV.

Biggest NBA advertisers this year were State Farm, $14.4 million; Samsung Mobile, $10.9 million; Taco Bell, $10.2 million; Kia Motors, $9.4 million; Geico, $8.9 million; Verizon, $8.3 million; the NBA, $7.9 million; Columbia Pictures, $7.7 million; Toyota, $7.4 million; and American Express, $6.8 million.

The three biggest categories were automotive, $57.9 million; movie studios, $36.4 million; fast food restaurants, $35.9 million; insurance, $29.7 million; and telecommunications, $16.6 million.

A year ago, for NBA programming, automotive spent $44.1 million; movie studios, $22.9 million; fast-food restaurants, $21.4 million; insurance, $19.7 million; and telecommunications, $18.5 million.

Kantar Media says post-season NBA basketball pulled in $944 million TV advertising spending in 2015, up from $875 million in 2014.