• by Wayne Friedman , February 27, 2012

Cable television networks' advertising revenue growth is slowing down in terms of percentage gain, but still improving.

Cable TV networks totaled $22.1 billion in 2011 -- a nearly 8% gain over 2010, per the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau. Results in 2010 were up 18.1% from the $18.7 billion level in 2009.

Overall, including local cable spot advertising sales, the CAB notes on its site that 2011 totals were up 4% to $28.7 billion. It says English-language cable networks made up a 32% share of all TV advertising revenue -- some $90.7 billion, up 4% from a year ago. The CAB also notes that Spanish-language cable TV advertising sales gained 21%, totaling $766 million for 2011.

Cable networks gained -- as did broadcast networks -- from a healthy improvement in upfront and scatter markets. Estimates were that cable networks that participated in the upfront pulled around $8 billion for deals contracted last summer.

Both broadcast and cable networks pulled in major increases on the key selling metric -- the CPMs. Media executives say top-flight networks grabbed increases of 11% to 15% and more.

By contrast, it says English-language broadcast TV gained 2% in 2011 to $26.2 billion, with spot television up 5% to $26.3 billion, and syndicated TV up 8% to $2.4 billion, according to the CAB.