• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, 9 hours ago

Cable TV advertising revenues continue to show bipolar results, with overall cable TV network revenue down mid-single-digit percentages -- but with sports and news channels posting gains, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.

In 2024, U.S. cable TV networks witnessed a 5.9% decline to $20.15 billion in advertising revenue versus the year before. S&P projects continued steady erosion, dropping to $16.3 billion in 2029.

Year-over-year (2024 versus 2023) sports-focused cable TV channels were up 1% ($4.38 billion) and cable news-focused TV networks adding 11% ($3.57 million). The latter is the result of a big Presidential advertising election year.

Sports programming on all cable networks is the leading TV network category for gross advertising revenue, and news programming is third.

On a compounded annual basis, sports is up 6.4% for the time period, with cable TV news networks down 3.4%.

The biggest individual cable TV network for advertising in 2024 was ESPN with $3.03 billion -- up 11% versus 2023. 

The next-highest network for advertising is Fox News Channel -- at $1.4 billion, according to S&P Kagan. EDO Ad EnGage estimates its advertising came in at $1.22 billion in 2024, and $1.29 billion the previous year (2023).

General cable TV/variety entertainment content remains the second-biggest advertising category -- at $3.96 billion -- down nearly 9% versus a year ago and slipping 4% from 2020.

Pure “arts and entertainment” networks -- where premium streaming scripted content resides -- have taken a massive 17% hit this year, sinking to $2.13 billion.

Since 2020, these networks have been down 16% on a compounded annual basis. 

Much of this premium content can now be seen on legacy streaming services.