• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, February 27, 2009

Even as the economy tumbled and advertisers went into bankruptcy, the Outdoor Channel posted a 21% jump in ad dollars in the fourth quarter--the 10th in a row with double-digit increases.

CEO Roger Werner said that is a "pretty significant achievement given the national recession and advertising downturn that's impacted virtually all of our peers in the television industry."

But Werner, speaking on a conference call last week, suggested that the significant improvements quarter after quarter are likely to slow in the current January to March period. Ad growth may come in about flat, he said, or maybe up 1% to 2%, compared to a year ago.

"Our advertisers are becoming increasingly conservative in the current quarter, and our rate of growth has moderated considerably," he said.

There are variations, however, with traditional ads along with infomercials trending down, but time buys on the rise.

Werner said the sales team is looking to attract non-endemic advertisers to offset some of the budget drops.

Ad dollars were $10 million in the fourth quarter, representing some 69% of revenue. Net income for the fourth quarter swung from a loss to a $488,000 increase.

Publicly traded Outdoor Channel Holdings, with its hunting and fishing programming, competes with various cablers, from the Sportsman Channel to Versus to ESPN.

Asked about ESPN's prospects as it struggles along with others amid the ad downturn, Werner--the former CEO there--said: "They are still the gold standard in our industry in terms of sports programming overall, and in terms of outdoor programming, in my opinion."

Still, Werner has tried to upgrade Outdoor's programming with 10 new series going online in the first quarter.

He said that further revenue growth could come from boosting subscribers. Often on a premium tier, the Outdoor Channel reaches 83 million homes, but has only 30 million subscribers. "We have a lot of headroom, if we can move ourselves to more broadly penetrated tiers," he said.