• The New York Times, Wednesday, June 25, 2008 10:15 AM

Cable channels' upfront advertising sales made much greater gains than ad sales by broadcast networks this year. At the same time, the ratings gap between cable and broadcast--once vast--has been gradually narrowing.

While all broadcasters except Fox posted significant ratings declines in the TV season that ended in May, many cable networks are setting new ratings records. Case in point: The premiere of the Disney Channel musical "Camp Rock," attracted 8.9 million viewers Friday night, soundly defeating the broadcast networks.

Other factors for the shift of ad revenues to cable are increasing media fragmentation and the development of new niche channels, which siphon ad dollars away from general-interest programming.

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