• by Wayne Friedman , November 11, 2015

Third-quarter national TV advertising was up 1% overall -- 1.4% for broadcast networks and 0.8% higher for cable networks, according to MoffettNathanson Research.

This was $140 million better than expected. Previous estimates for the period suggested there would be a 1% overall decline.

In addition to sports and live event TV -- mostly coming from higher NFL viewership and the World Series -- MoffettNathanson Research says tight inventory supplies caused by make-good issues forced up pricing.

Still, the report says “mid-single digit [percentage] TV advertising growth seems to be a thing of the past.”

In the third quarter, ABC grew 5% to $753 million in national advertising revenues; NBC (including its TV stations) was up 3% to $1.18 billion; and CBS was 0.6% better to $792 million.

Fox continued to drop -- down 7% to $409 million -- but MoffettNathanson says this was better than previous estimates.

For cable networks, AMC Networks -- thanks to “Fear The Walking Dead” -- was up 40% to $193 million; Scripps Networks Interactive climbed 5.2% to $448 million; Discovery Communications added on 4% to get to $404 million (results don’t include Discovery Family); Fox cable networks also grew 4% to $520 million; NBCUniversal improved 2.1% to $813 million; Disney was flat at $952 million; Time Warner was virtually the same -- down 0.1% to $835 million.

MoffettNathanson expects Viacom continued to suffe, down 8% to $1.007 billion. But it also says “a series of positive revisions that might create temporary relief rally for the most beaten up names. We continue to put Viacom atop that list.”