Television (Specialty) – 4.5 out of 5

Both English and French specialties are having a killer fall season and doing well according to buyers surveyed by Media in Canada. Avails for the most desirable channels are tight right up to December.

Rates are up compared to last year but so are audience estimates. Overall CPMs are consistent with last fall, on female-skewed channels particularly.

Kid specialty is selling like hot cakes and the rates reflect this demand.

Hot stations include Alliance Atlantis’ Life, Showcase, HGTV and Food; Corus’ YTV and Teletoon; CHUM’s MuchMusic and Space; and CTV’s TSN and Discovery.

Television (Digital) – 2 out 5

Digital revenues are still being dwarfed by specialty but some such as Showcase Action, and Diva, Lonestar, and Animal Planet are having a decent fall.

Buyers say the diginets are not being sold as aggressively as in the past, and that specialty reps are not pushing as hard to get their digitals as part of the buys. They sometimes offer to use the diginets for makegoods, but they are quickly skimming over the digitals during sales presentations.