• by Wayne Friedman , November 22, 2016

Independent TV networks showed a sharp rise in national commercial impressions for the month of October. topping a year ago by more than a 9% share.

Cable channels -- including NFL Network, WGN, The Weather Channel and broadcast network ION -- all had big gains, according to Brian Wieser, senior analyst at Pivotal Research Group, in analyzing Nielsen data.

Those TV networks grew to a 9.3% share from a 7.6%. Wieser also notes local TV station-based digital networks, such as Escape and Grit, accounted for a 0.8% share of all national TV impressions. Multicast TV networks were at a zero percent share a year ago.

NBCUniversal remained the top TV network group in terms of commercial share -- C3 rating -- when it comes to 18-49 viewers. It Is now at a 14.6% share, up from 14.5% a year ago. (C3 ratings are the average minute commercial rating plus three days of time-shifted viewing.)

Viacom was next at a 13.8%, a big drop from its 14.3% share a year ago -- all this against higher average ad loads per hour, now at 14.4 minutes per hour versus 14.1 a year ago.

Time Warner (an 11.2% share), Fox (11.0%) and Disney (10.8%) were next. Time Warner remained the same in term of commercial advertising loads, average 8.9 minutes; Fox rose to 10.2 (from 9.8); and Disney was up 8.2 minutes from 7.9.

CBS was at a 6.8% share of 18-49 C3 ratings points (down from 7.5%); Discovery, 5.8% down from 6.0%; Scripps Networks Interactive, 4.5% versus 4.6% a year ago; and AMC Networks dropping to 2.3% share from 3.9%.

National TV networks' average advertising loads was up to 10.8 minutes per hour versus 10.5 minutes.