• by Paul Gough , October 14, 2003

The slackening network TV scatter market does not appear to be suppressing demand for targeted cable networks such as HGTV and Food Network, executives from parent E.W. Scripps said Tuesday.

The Cincinnati-based media company painted a rosy picture on the cable networks' future, much brighter than Scripps' other media assets in newspapers, TV stations and the Shop At Home Network. It's a portrait that is much brighter than many big media companies have discovered in the fourth- quarter scatter market, the first blush of a lagging network TV ad marketplace since the record $9.3 billion broadcast TV upfront and $5.68 billion for cable networks earlier this year. Scatter for many networks has been either flat or up only at single digits rates over upfront pricing, a change from the double-digit increases reported last year.

But that's not the case at Scripps Networks, which confirmed Tuesday that its fourth-quarter scatter pricing is up at strong double-digit growth rates over upfront pricing. Scripps' scatter market returns are "happily out of synch with some of the headlines," said Frank Gardner, chairman of Scripps Networks.

"CPMs were significantly ahead of the marketplace, and I do mean significantly," Gardner said. Scripps declined to discuss CPM increases at its specific networks, which also include DIY and Fine Living. Scripps sold about 58 percent of its inventory in the upfront.

"We are outpacing our peers in volume and we are outpacing our peers on CPM," Gardner said. "It has been proven true in the good years and even in the bad years."

In the third quarter, Scripps Networks advertising revenue rose 29 percent to $96.6 million. It anticipates another strong performance in the fourth quarter, which it said based on advance sales ad revenues would rise 25 percent to 30 percent.

Gardner and Scripps Chairman Kenneth Lowe weren't at a loss to explain the differences between Scripps and some of its broader-reach competitors. Lowe said targeted networks are doing better in the marketplace overall, gaining from a strong upfront and scatter market, good ratings momentum and what he termed as advertisers' displeasure with early ratings for the broadcast networks.

Scripps doesn't pretend to be the answer for every advertiser but Gardner said that the networks were benefiting from concerns about accountability. He said Scripps' case will be strengthened even further when Nielsen Media Research doubles its sample size and by its expansion of People Meters.

"That's nothing but good news for us," he said.