Cable Ad Recession Coming: Analyst

Cable Ad Recession Coming: Analyst

The ad recession that's devastated newspapers and now, local tv, has yet to hit cable TV. But that's about to change, according to research firm SNL Kagan.

Kagan says cable TV advertising will have grown 10.7% by the end of 2008, a very healthy increase in a down year. Next year, however, the bottom drops out: ad revenues will grow a mere 4.7%.

Kagan doesn't offer much explanation for the drop, besides the obvious. A spokesperson tells us the prediction is based on a weakening economy in the second half of 2008, which will last at least through the cable upfront sales period next June. We assume the dropoff is in large part based on the void left by the Olympic and political ads running this year. But that doesn't explain why Kagan predicts the market will bounce back to a more typical 11.1% pace in 2010.

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