Powered by pro football and the start of a new season, TV advertising revenue rose 10% in October, the biggest gain since January 2014, according to figures from research company Standard Media Index.
While volume in this year's upfront was reported to be down, the amount of ad revenue generated from upfront buys in October was up 11%, with broadcast showing a 10% increase and cable up 12%.
Media execs have been talking about a strong scatter market, and broadcast scatter sales were up 19%, but cable was down 1%, according to SMI.
Overall broadcast showed a 12% jump in ad revenues in October. Cable grew 9%, spot TV was up 5%, and local broadcast and cable rose 18%, with political spending probably boosting the cable numers. Syndication ad revenue was down 8%.
Big gainers in cable included ESPN, MTV, HGTV and ABC Family. All four big broadcast networks posted increases, as did Spanish-language networks Univision and Telemundo.
Despite the October increases, TV revenue is still down 3% for the calendar year.
“Everyone had a gut feeling that quality original programming, a solid upfront and great football ratings were delivering strong numbers and now we have the results to back this up,” said James Fennessy, SMI’s chief commercial officer.
Read more at broadcastingcable.com.
