• by Wayne Friedman , July 29, 2019

Second-quarter national TV advertising revenues is generally flat versus the same time period a year ago.

National cable TV networks are up 1% totaling $5.7 billion, with broadcast networks sinking 1% to $3.2 billion, according to MoffettNathanson Research.

Leading all groups will be CBS, estimated to grow 13% to $946 million from the NCAA Men’s Final Four college basketball games and PGA Championship. On the flip side, Fox will drop 16% to $345 million, due to comparisons with last year’s World Cup coverage.

ABC will be down 2% to $595 million; with NBC (including its advertising results from TV stations) down 4% to $1.4 billion.

Better-performing cable networks: Discovery growing 4.1% to $1.1 billion; Viacom is up 4% to $961 million; and Fox adds 2.5% to $302 million. Viacom benefited from a “strong scatter” market, according to the report.

Disney’s cable networks will be generally flat (up 0.4%) at $967 million. NBCUniversal is also flat (0.2%) at $931 million; Turner is down 3% to $1.1 billion. AMC is projected to decline 10% to $222 million.

The report notes cable advertising inventory loads, with data from Nielsen, were up 1%.  A+E Networks rose the most, 3.5% to 14 minutes per hour. On the flip side was Fox -- dropping 2% to 10.4 minutes per hour. Viacom still leads all groups with 14.3 minutes of commercial per hour.