Banner Year For National and Local Cable Ad Sales

The economy is picking up and businesses are advertising once again. Despite threats of cord cutting and DVR, cable ad sales revenue continues to grow, reaching $27.1 billion dollars in 2010. In fact the CAB calls it the best year ever.

And while national cable ad sales grew near 10%, more impressively, local cable ad sales increased by 20% last year. "Original programming, said CAB, helped attract more dollars across categories to the national cable networks. They also rang up gains with non-linear ads." With interactive advertising and better segmentation technology, along with on demand advertising, cable advertising should continue to advance this year, too.

Of course, the economy must continue to respond. The health of key industries, including the auto market, are necessary. While last year had tons of political advertising, this year must rely on other sectors to pick up the inventory. As employment begins to rebound and consumers are purchasing more items, the economy is rising. And it seems that for 2011, cable advertising has a lot of positive momentum supporting its growth.