How The Media Giants Split The Cable Ad Pie

Cable World, Sept 3, 2001

Three media companies--Viacom, AOL Time Warner and the Walt Disney Co.--take in more than half of the total spending on cable network advertising. Of these giants Disney is the smallest, but it's looking to catch up.

Before agreeing to buy Fox Family Channel from News Corp. and Saban Entertainment, for about $5 billion, Disney accounted for 14% of cable network ad billings, according to Kagan World Media, the media industry newsletter and databook publisher that, like Cable World, is a subsidiary of Media Central. Kagan notes that Disney told analysts it plans to rename the channel ABC Family and raise ad revenues by 50%, to about $300 million in 2003 from about $200 million in 2001.

Kagan also theorizes that the purchase of Fox Family might mean it is less likely that paid commercials will be introduced to the Disney Channel, which after years as a premium channel is now in 71 million homes.

No. 1 in cable network ad revenues is Viacom, which owns a 22% share thanks to outlets that include kids leader Nickelodeon, teen magnet MTV and VH1, home of Behind the Music.

AOL Time Warner is the other titan, checking in with a 20% share of the market behind its entertainment channels Turner Network Television and TBS Superstation and news leader CNN.

The charts below show the key networks owned by the three leaders, with their ad revenues from April.

NATIONAL-NETWORK CABLE AD BILLINGS SHARES BY OWNER

VIACOM     22%
AOL TW     20%
DISNEY     14%
GE          7%
HEARST      7%
LIBERTY     7%
OTHERS     23%
* VIACOM

                      SHARE     TOTAL APRIL
NETWORK               OWNED    AD REVENUES(*)

BET                    100%       $13.2
BET on Jazz            100%        N/A
CMT                    100%        $6.6
Comedy Central          50%       $34.1
MTV                    100%       $39.6
MTV2                   100%        N/A
Nickelodeon            100%       $74.5
TNN                    100%       $22.5
TV Land                100%        $5.9
VH1                    100%       $28.1

* AOL TIME WARNER

                      SHARE     TOTAL APRIL
NETWORK               OWNED    AD REVENUES(*)

Cartoon Network        100%       $15.7
CNN                    100%       $28.8
CNN Money              100%        N/A
CNN/SI                 100%        N/A
Comedy Central        37.3%       $34.1
Court TV                50%        $6.2
Headline News          100%       $13.5
Oxygen                  N/A        N/A
TBS                    100%       $46.4
TNT                    100%       $50.1

* DISNEY

                      SHARE     TOTAL APRIL
NETWORK               OWNED    AD REVENUES(*)

A&E                   37.5%        $39.4
Biography             37.5%         N/A
Disney Channel         100%         N/A
E!                    39.6%        $24.5
ESPN                    80%       $111.4
ESPN2                   80%        $12.4
ESPN Classic            80%         N/A
ESPNews                 80%         N/A
History               37.5%        $18.3
Lifetime                50%        $61.8
Lifetime Movies         50%         N/A
SoapNet                100%         N/A
style                 39.6%         N/A
Toon Disney            100%         N/A

SOURCE: KAGAN WORLD MEDIA ANALYSIS OF CMR DATA (*) IN MILLIONS