• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, November 2, 2011

CEO David Zaslav said the “biggest driver” in Discovery’s ad growth in the third quarter was the emerging ID (Investigation Discovery) network with shows such as “I Married a Mobster” and “Nightmare Next Door” helping drive its ratings

Overall, Discovery reported a 6% increase in domestic ad growth to $322 million, slower than the 16% growth in the same period a year ago.

Nevertheless, Zaslav said on an investor call that the ad market looks strong heading into early next year, as advertisers are keeping their spending commitments and the scatter market is robust.

“We have not seen any meaningful cancellations on options for next year and current scatter demand and pricing for the fourth quarter remains strong,” he said.

 At ID, he noted there is still more runway as CPMs are “still quite low.”

Domestically in the most recent quarter, revenues were up 19% to $695 million helped by a major influx from a recent Netflix deal. Company-wide profit was up $77 million versus the same period a year ago to $238 million.

In the recent quarter, even as the economy had trouble in Europe, Discovery reported it was able to command higher pricing with its feeds on the continent.