September 14, 2010

The significant declines in US advertising revenue in 2009 rocked the broadcast television business to the core. Cable television has weathered the storm, with networks seeing just a 1% decline in ad revenue last year, and showing significant growth in ad revenue in the first half of this year. Carriage fees, cable network's second revenue stream, continue to grow steadily, a big reason cable network properties are the crown jewels of media conglomerates. So far, threats that new media will erode the cable network business just as cable encroached on broadcast are proving to be a paper tiger.

Tables and charts included:

• Average Primetime Household Viewing
• Domestic Cable Television Macro Economics
• Cable Network Programming Costs
• Big four broadcast networks programming by select genres (Total number of hours)

Pages: 8

Tables & charts: 4

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