• The Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, April 28, 2009 9:32 AM

Everyone wants to know if TV's advertising recession is nearing its lowest ebb. Results from two cable-television-network owners this week could help answer that question, by providing the first detailed look at how national cable advertising fared in 2009.

Time Warner Inc., owner of TNT, TBS and CNN, reports earnings Wednesday, followed Thursday by Viacom, owner of MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central. Analysts will be trying to learn how briskly the networks are selling ads in the scatter market and how many advance ad commitments have been canceled. "We may have hit bottom. We're still waiting to see," says Andy Donchin, a media buyer at Carat.

Time Warner's networks have in recent quarters seen their ad-revenue growth outpace Viacom's. Viacom says its younger-skewing networks have been hit harder in the downturn. "The two companies are two ends of the spectrum," says Michael Nathanson, analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein. He expects overall year-to-year cable-ad-revenue growth to decelerate 3%-6% for the first quarter.

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