• by May 14, 2001

Hurt by the weak economy and the dot-com fallout, ad revenues for ABC, NBC and CBS combined were up less than 1% to $3.4 billion during the first quarter compared to the same period last year.

Primetime advertising grew by more than $43 million from the first quarter of 2000, but the real success story was in the morning, where the Big Three saw a 6.8% increase to $187.1 million, according to figures compiled by Ernst & Young and released last week by the Broadcast Cable Financial Management Assn (BCFM).

"The morning news competition continues to heat up and despite the difficulty in the economy, the revenue continues to grow," said Buz Buzogany, president-CEO of BCFM. "All three shows are doing reasonably well. CBS has grown recently thanks to 'Survivor."'

Boosted by the Super Bowl, sports advertising showed modest growth of 1.9% to $871.2 million, while latenight was up less than 1% to $161.1 million.

Daytime dipped 8.2% to $274.4 million and news dropped 9.6% to $243.8 million year-to-year. Revenue for children's programming slid 31% to $14.1 million.

"Children's revenue has been decreasing for the last eight quarters because the competition continues to take a larger market share away from the Big Three nets," said Buzogany, alluding to Nickelodeon.

- Reuters/Variety