Discovery Sees Uptick In Ad Orders, Placed Earlier

David Zaslav

The top executive at Discovery Communications, which was able to buck the trend of ad declines last year, suggested the company's positive results are accelerating.

Among other plus signs, David Zaslav indicated that advertisers have begun a return to a more traditional rhythm of placing orders as far as three months before air date.

Last year, during the economic doldrums, the CEO had said booking requests were coming in much closer to air date; thus, forecasting results for a longer term was difficult.

Speaking on CNBC, Zaslav said: "Throughout the fourth quarter, we saw an improvement in pricing, but volume and visibility remained pretty low. We're starting to see visibility pick up. It was in the two- to three-week range. Now, we're seeing, I'd say, three months ahead. I don't know if that will continue, but it's a very good sign."

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He added that the ad market overall is "improving," and more dollars are flowing into Discovery -- which posted a 5% increase in the July-September 2009 period to $261 million, even as other cable networks struggled.

Zaslav said the financial services and auto categories have returned to the market at robust levels. That's a good sign for the flagship Discovery network in particular, given its male-skewing audience.

Still, he said he wasn't sure what to attribute the uptick to, and that while "encouraging ... in this market I think we've got to just wait and see if it continues."

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