CAB: Cable Ad Spending Grows to $18.7B in '09

In Down Market, Nets See Spot Take Rise 1.8%

MCN Staff -- Multichannel News, 12/8/2009 12:41:39 PM

The Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau said Tuesday that it expects year-over-year ad-sales growth for national cable networks in 2009 to rise 1.8% from 2008, to some $18.7 billion in total.

The cable-advertising group said that figure would be some $330 million more than 2008's total of $18.4 billion in overall cable ad-sales. In a release, the CAB also called the uptick "significant in an environment of across-the-board ad-sales declines among all other major U.S. media."

According to CAB, the overall ad sector saw double-digit declines of 13% to 15% year over year.

"As 2009 ad budgets were under intense scrutiny, we did a lot of work with agencies and advertisers on cable's gains in original programming, ratings and reach analysis and multiscreen insights," CAB CEO Sean Cunnigham said in a statement. "So having cable's branded networks counted on even more heavily by 2009 national advertisers was extremely gratifying."

In terms of the 2009-10 upfront, cable networks saw their overall volume decrease by 13% from 2008, to some $6.6 billion. The CAB said the downturn reflected advertisers shifting money to the scatter market, particularly in the inventory-rich fourth quarter.

The upfront also saw cable networks reach a new high in terms of deals with branded multimedia components, as 20% of all deals extended beyond TV ad inventory, the CAB reported. Its full-year projections stuck strictly to TV time, however.

The CAB added that 2009 marked the eight consecutive year of ad-sales growth for national basic-cable networks, adding that the segment has grown 60% from $11.7 billion in 2001 to $18.7 billion in 2009.