Big Broadcast Nets Drop In Revs, Fox Is Big Loser

National TV advertising among the major broadcast networks and cable groups witnessed a 2.7% decline in revenues for second-quarter 2015 -- more or less in line with expectations.

MoffettNathanson Research says the four major English-language broadcasters were down 2.9% to $3.4 billion with the eight major cable network groups sinking 2.6% to $5.8 billion.

NBC (including that of its TV stations) posted nearly flat advertising revenue results -- up slightly 0.4% to $1.25 billion. ABC and CBS were slightly under these levels: with ABC down 1.0% to $849 million and CBS down 1.6% to $901 million.

Putting a big dent into broadcast TV ad sales was Fox -- losing 17% during the second quarter to land at $401 million.

Only three of the eight major cable groups grew during the period -- and two of the three were the smaller cable network groups -- AMC Networks and Scripps Networks Interactive. AMC was up 1.5% to $166 million; Scripps grew 1.4% to $497 million.

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The largest cable network group in terms of advertising revenue, Time Warner, inched up 0.6% to $1.13 billion.

The biggest losers included Viacom, off 9.5% to $1.0 billion and NBCU, which was down 3% to $917 million. MoffettNathanson had previously estimated worse results for NBCU’s cable channels -- trimming back 8%.

Other cable networks groups: Discovery Communications slipped 1.0% to $442 million; Fox gave up 2% to $601 million; and Disney also down 2% to 1.07 billion.

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