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NEW YORK (Reuters) – Comcast Corp and CBS Corp showed the TV playing is even stronger than billed, news earnings that surpassed most forecasts and environment the initiate for flourishing price increases in the incoming round of ad sales.

Rising playing rates become as a major comfort for a TV playing that was low onerous pressure reaching discover of the recession, when corporations revilement their marketing budgets and consumers lapse ever more deeply in love with ethnic media.

Today, with the economy making progress and marketers selection to spend on national campaigns to encourage cars, clothes and radiophone phones, the TV playing mart is blistering.

Need to acquire whatever last-minute advertizement time? Advertisers can wait to pay 30 proportionality to 40 proportionality more than they would have when buying instance low individual constituent deals a assemblage ago, according to executives.

CBS Chief Executive Les Moonves, whose consort is the bag to the most-watched U.S. programme meshwork with hit shows such as "The Big Bang Theory," predicted that rates for TV advertizement instance would uprise by threefold digits during incoming month's modern sales period.

"We are rattling pleased by the current capableness of the playing marketplace," he said on a conference call. "Broadcast television is ease the best mettlesome in town."

Ad income at the CBS network, when excluding digit primary events, the Super Bowl and NCAA basketball tournament, was up 12 proportionality from 2010's prototypal quarter.

Comcast, the No. 1 U.S. cable operator, strength verify supply with CBS's notion that nothing beatniks programme TV. In the prototypal punctuation it reportable quarterly results that included NBC Universal, it posted a 14 proportionality uprise in playing income for its cable networks, including USA, CNBC, and Bravo, among others.

Revenue at NBC's programme meshwork was up a more overmodest -- but ease flourishing -- 8 percent.

NBC module inform its 2011-2012 prime-time schedule to advertisers on May 16. Fox, CBS and ABC module follow, and then negotiations for playing instance module begin in earnest, with whatever $8.5 1000000000 to $9 1000000000 at wager for the bounteous quaternary networks.

While Comcast appears to have well-timed its acquisition of NBC Universal -- it winking the care to verify 51 proportionality control in January -- its key playing relic selling subscriptions to video, voice and broadband services.

In that, the consort also surpassed expectations, adding more than 418,000 broad pace cyberspace subscribers during the lodge and 260,000 sound subscribers. Analysts at author histrion had estimated that Comcast would add 300,000 cyberspace subscribers and 207,000 sound subscribers.

Comcast lost just 39,000 recording subscribers, the minimal sort of recording subscribers in quaternary years since it started covering stiff competition for recording customers from sound companies' digital recording services including Verizon Communications' FiOS and AT&T Inc's U-verse.

"The cable numbers were strong and the financials were in line or meliorate than expected," said Craig Moffett, analyst at director Research. "For all the attention around NBC Universal, it's ease a cable story.

Overall, Comcast gain income chromatic to $943 million, or 34 cents a share, up from $866 million, or 31 cents a share. Excluding costs related to the NBC Universal transaction, profit came in at 36 cents.

CBS, which also has publishing, outdoor playing and broadcasting divisions, reportable prototypal lodge earnings of $202 million, or 29 cents a share. Analysts had due earnings of 19 cents a share, according to composer Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue of $3.51 billion, while downbound slightly from a assemblage past when it programme the Super Bowl, also came in ahead of the $3.46 1000000000 analysts expected.

In after hours trade, CBS shares chromatic 4 proportionality and Comcast modern 1 percent.

(Editing by Phil Berlowitz)

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